Porter Cable brad nailer problem

[peter leyden]

I have a brad nailer with a perplexing problem - it will fire one brad,then the piston stays in the fired position. It never returns to the ready-to-fire position. I tried cleaning and oiling it, varied the air pressure, and checked against the parts diagram for missing or damaged parts. No luck. Does anyone out there know what the mechanism is that returns the piston to the ready-to-fire position? This is driving me balmy- Help!
Thanks for reading my tale of woe,
Pete Leyden

[Tom Wassack]

Greetings from NC!
Peter,
I had the same problem recently. It seems debris will clog the exhaust port on the piston cap, thus not letting the piston retract back into the cylinder. Pull the cap by removing the 4 allen head socket screws to check for debris. Here's a link describing the problem and repair - http://repair-place.com/page2/3928~Problems_with_my_Porter_Cable_BN200_-_help!!!.html. (http://repair-place.com/page2/3928%7EProblems_with_my_Porter_Cable_BN200_-_help%21%21%21.html)

Regards,
Tom Wassack
Asheboro, NC

[eric buggeln]

A little off topic, but I had the same nailer and eventually it wouldnt sink the nails even when set on the full depth. Tried buddies air compressor and still had same problem. all my other nailers worked with my compressor also, so I just bought the Ridgid for a $100.00, which got great reviews in JLC and Tools of the Trade. The only negative I have with it is when cross nailing to get a molding to fit better it leaves dents, which shouldnt be a problem in woodworking situations.

[Dan Andrews]

Thank you Tom W. !! the link you gave covered this problem in detail and provided instructions on accessing the port and cleaning it. I had disassebled the gun and cleaned everything else to no avail. Folowing the instructions found at the link fixed the retracting problem. Being this was brought up 2 years ago I just wanted to bring it to current topics for anyone else experiencing this common problem with the Porter Cable brad nailers.