I just picked up a Mini in good condition that needed a new gauge. After replacing the gauge I'm chasing leaks around the gun. At first I couldn't get a good seal on the gauge, but after a few attempts I got the gauge sealed up. Then it started leaking out of the bottom of the regulator and the gauge was reading 300psi. So, I went to screw out the screw that controls input pressure, but this wouldn't drop the pressure or stop the leak. I then unscrewed the brass screw and loosened the collar on the front of the reg and screwed it out some and then put the tank on. I then screwed in the collar a little at a time to see if I could get the pressure dialed in and lock it down. The thing is that as soon as the pin began to depress on the tank it began leaking out of the back of the bolt and not the screw on the bottom of the reg. After that I just reset the collar at the previous setting and put the brass screw back in and boxed it up. I've learned from experience that it's best to walk away then keep trying, atleast for a bit. Thought I would bounce this off of some of you guys and see if we could get this fixed. My local shop has a bunch of kids working there and I don't trust them to try to tech it and I'd like to avoid sending it out to get repaired if at all possible.

Thanks

You did the right thing with screwing out the reg adjuster. Next, tighten the back cap all the way down to seat the poppet. See if this stops the leak down the barrel. If it doesn't, the solenoid needs to be reset. I had to do the same thing on a mini that I bought. Try resetting the poppet and let me know what happens. I'm sure you know how to reset the poppet, but when you tighten down the back cap, make it pretty snug (no need to really ream on it) and don't back it off right away. Leave it tight til after you put the air to the marker again. If there's no leak, unscrew the back cap a touch and see if the leak comes back. If it does its a bad poppet face and you'll need a new poppet, unless it has the removable face on it. Let me know how it goes.

I'm back to leaking out of the silver screw on the bottom of the regulator still. I've got the velocity adj. screwed all the way in and it still pours out of the bottom of the reg. Aside from tearing the reg down and cleaning it I'm at a loss. I think I've read that a dirty seal in the bottom of the reg can cause it to leak out of the bottom. I really don't want to tear the reg down though.

Were you able to drop the pressure down so it can read 200 or under?

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Yeah if its leaking out the bottom of the reg its because the pressure is still too high. Do what you did the first time and turn the brass adjuster and collar out so that the tank won't pressurize the marker when you screw it in. The slowly start turning in the brass adjuster until it pressurizes. Go slow and see if it leaks before you get to 200 psi. The Mini's reg won't allow it to be over 200 psi without purging itself.

So far it's either reading 0 or 300. I will tinker with it a little more tonight. I'm almost out of air in my tank so i hope I get it solved before I run out. lol

I believe I got her dialed in and set. Here's what I had to do to get her straight.

I removed the brass pressure adj. screw from the reg, then I loosened the hex screw that tightened the collar down on the reg and backed the collar out almost full (make sure that not to unscrew completely), threaded the tank onto the marker and began screwing in the collar. Once the collar began to engage valve pin on the tank I stopped and bled the air out of the marker then backed the collar back out just a smidge. Next I locked the collar down and inserted the brass screw and screwed it in until I got up to 200psi. At that point I had no leaks from the bottom of the reg. I turned the velocity adj. back out to flush from my earlier attempt at resetting the poppit. I know I'm shooting a little hot but without a chrono I won't be able to dial that back in just yet. I fired off about 10 shots, since it was late I didn't want to shoot off a string, and it held fine. The only thing I hate is that Dye gauge bounces between 200 and 0 every shot, but I think that is just a poor gauge. I can't take credit for this process since I found it over on TechPB. Below is a link to that post for any interested for future reference. Thanks for the help all.

Invert Mini leaking out of the bottem of the regulator - TechPB Forums

Nice work helping my man out. He was really bummed at the game on Saturday and had to borrow a different mini to mow face with.

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Glad to hear you got it running Tank. That was the process I had to go through with my Silver mini I had. I was trying to figure out how to explain it to you, but I don't think I was doing a very good job. Glad its working now though. Now go shoot some faces off!

Thanks man! Yeah, that is kind of a hard process to explain. I had to read it twice to get it straight in my head.