The free to me tippmann???

Sooooooo. I just gota marker for myself for the ripe price of FREE Tippman 98 custom. Not sure how old or what it's got or can be capable of. Serial number is 705371. Good marker??

I'd post a photo but I don't know how. Lol

So I pulled it apart to check the internals. Here's a pic does everything look ok O ring and assembly wise???

I read about polishing the internals,,,, is it worth it??

Got it from my boss. His kid now in college never used it at all and abandoned it. Any idea as to the age if the marker??? Newer , older?? I'd guess old but I dunno

This will assist you.
http://www.tippmann.com/pdfs/manuals/98%20Custom%20&%20Pro%20Manual%20Combined%20ACT.pdf

I'm certain it's NOT a ACT  (anti chop) but does that really matter ?

tallen702 wrote: jeepininaz wrote: Do the ball detent (orange piece) is installed in this orientation then > And NOT.   < Right Correct. You want the ball detent to be pushed down by the forward travel of the bolt. In the orientation in the picture, the bolt would hang up on it rather than travel over it. Nice pick-up. It's a second/third gen 98c. It's older, but that doesn't make much difference. It's actually the marker that has the absolute MOST parts and upgrades availability out of all of them. You can use drop-in kits to make it fully automatic, select fire, or even on-demand burst fire. You can put a center-feed on it, make it run on lower pressure air sources, you can even convert it to a fully electro-pneumatic marker (same operation as the ultra-high-end markers). Great marker, and it's good that it's got something other than the stock barrel as well even if it a little long for my tastes. Did it just come with the standard hopper (where the paintballs are loaded) or a motorized one?

Well I got home from work and pulled the marker apart to reassess and correct the spring as well as the ball retainer orange thing. Well it now looks like this. Live and learn right



While the guns apart I'll clean up the overspray as well



I'm still looking for the easy paint removal method. ATF????

Yeah, ATF will take the paint right off from what I understand. I've never done it myself, but I've heard of people using it.

The ball detent (though mangled) will still work fine. I've seen them worn down to little nubs and still do the job. Essentially it's just there to prevent the ball in the chamber from rolling down the barrel, and preventing double-feeds from the stack coming down from your hopper.

Even though your field doesn't allow automatic fire, an e-trigger upgrade or e-bolt (which is no longer produced, but can be bought used) would still be good to get at some point if you really get into playing. Semi-auto micro-switch operated double-triggers can be amazingly fast if you know how to "walk" them with your fingers. Below is a great example of how fast it can go with the right setup on your marker:


The key thing to get that speed and being able to walk is electronic fire control replacing the standard sear-and-spring setup that you currently have. It's not for everyone, but again, if you really get into playing and want to up your game, it's something to consider.

As for polishing, it looks good. You don't want to take down too much of the metal because then you can have o-ring issues (if you remove too much of the hammer walls, it won't seat properly and you'll lose blow-back/recocking pressure).

Those little pop-out panels on the grip are for the e-bolt and e-trigger upgrades. The rounded depression under the sear and trigger area is for an RT piston. And the depressions running from the fore-grip area to the valve body area are for a vertical-adapter.

That's a Generation-2 98C. You can tell because the lower section of the grip frame isn't flat on the interior (the newer ones are flat to better seat an e-trigger setup) but the trigger return spring is the vertical set-up and not the pinned one in the first generation of 98Cs.

In my personal opinion, it's the best marker Tippmann ever made. Do newer models have some nice perks and whatnot? Sure. But the classic 98c's a a blank slate, you can turn them into ANYTHING. For example, this is probably one of the most famous 98's of all time:


Now, that's a lot of money and time sunk into a project, and it's ugly as sin, but boy does it rip!

But back to less complicated modifications.

Everyone here has pretty much always agreed that you want to upgrade the barrel and hopper first thing. Barrels make the biggest difference in accuracy, and a motorized hopper, even a cheap ReVLution loader from Wal-mart, will ensure a consistent feed rate. This means few if any chopped rounds in the chamber. I'm sure you noticed playing with a rental, that if a ball broke in the barrel or got chopped in half by the bolt in the chamber, your accuracy greatly decreased. Preventing those two things from happening will make your game 1000% more enjoyable.

Try out the barrel you have on there (I've never heard of it myself, but there are a million different barrels out there) and if it seems to make a great difference over the stock barrel and you're happy with it, stick with it for the time being. If it's not a big improvement, we usually suggest the J&J Ceramic in 12"-14" Anything past 14" and you're wasting air pushing the ball down the barrel. Anything less than 11.5" and you're having to use too much air to bring the ball up to speed at the muzzle.

Start with those two things, take a look at other people's markers at the field and see what they've done, and go from there on upgrades. Some people are all about looks (they want it to look realistic or whatnot) Others are interested in fire rate (e-trigger/RT/ebolt) others are interested in efficiency (Low pressure kit, HPA, double regulation) and some are happy with just going out and blasting away with a reliable barrel and hopper.

No matter what you do, you're going to have fun!

Would a tippmann cyclone feeder work on this gun well??