Servicing a Farley Front Rest

W

Wm Cook

Member
I have a Farley that I bought around 2002/2003 that I need to disassemble, clean, upgrade and reassemble.
I’ve done the advanced search and saw the response that Butch gives to get most of the above done.
But I would appreciate it if someone could give me advice on the first couple steps on disassembling this little black box. I see three sets of screws on the top (marked A, B and C). If someone could shed some light on which to disassemble first I would greatly appreciate it. Attached are the recommendations from Butch.
• The first thing to do is disassemble the rest top thoroughly, clean and put teflon or UHMW tape on the front of the front sliding plate. The front sliding plate bears or rubs on the main rest housing.
• I like synthetic racing bicycle wheel bearing grease. Apply the grease to the front sliding plate.
• The older Farley's had 2 square .250 keys that worked between the 2 sliding plates. Replace the keys with 2 round .250 pins. Be sure to lube the pins. Replace the tension screws with the Shadetree Engineering screws.
• Lube the buttons with the above mentioned grease. You need to also lube the adjustable plate that bolts to the bottom of the res top that slides in the back sliding plate.
• I don't remove the boot but I do take the screws out and let it float. The easiest way to adjust the tension screws for me is to set a 10lbs. weight on the bag plate and vigorously operate the stick slowly tightening the tension screws. When the screws are tight enough to hold the 10lbs. weight it will then easily hold a 17lbs rifle.

Thanks, Bill.

Farley Top.jpg
 
The teardown

Well this has been interesting. With some help from Wayne and Butch this is what developed.

To begin you have to pull the top off the base. With a 1/8" allen you remove the cap head screw and that allows the top to come off the track. Once you have the top off you can remove your front bag. Just a note here. The shape of the bag is kind of important. The sand will shift around as you handle the bag so keep that in mind when you reassemble and nest the forearm of your rifle back into position. You'll have to re-settle the bag to fit the forearm.

A.jpg

The next step is to remove the two allen screws that were hidden by the front bag. Easy enough, just use the same 1/8" allen and it comes off without anything exciting happening.

B.jpg

Then you lay the front rest with the downrange view on the table and the joystick sticking straight up. You remove the three screws that hold the bottom plate on and and you can set it aside. You will then have access to three loose pieces. Two 1/4" dolls and the plate that engages the doll pins and fits into the frame of the rest.

C.jpg

DDDD.png

Now the trick I learned is that to disassemble you have to "press" or "tap" a unit out of the front rest body. That unit includes the business end of the joystick, a spherical bearing and an aluminum doll that holds the unit into the top body. This is a unit and it'll stay as a unit. You simply tap it out of the body so it can be washed up and properly lubricated. It comes out fairly easily and I did not use a hydraulic press. I just took a socket the same size as the aluminum doll and tapped it both in and out quite comfortably. Not too loose and not too tight.

E.jpg

F.jpg

From this point on its just a clean up and reassembly per Butch's recommendations.

The lessons learned were two. The fist is my being tone depth to the housekeeping requirements. The second was that the tension screws were grossly miss aligned. The conclusion I drew on the latter is that the grit, grime and lack of lubricant compensated for the miss adjustment of the tension screws.

Butch put a couple of the screws in the mail Wednesday so I should have them by tomorrow.

As it is right now the front adjust with a fraction of the effort it did before the clean and adjustments. I would not recommend this be done the day before a match but it's doable and it'll become an annual event for me. Thanks, Bill.
 
Bill, thank you for describing the steps you took in disassembling your Farley. One thing I don't understand and I hope you, or someone, can help me. How do you remove the bag out of the rest? I've got a gen 1 Farley if that matters.

Thanks -- Todd
 
10ring said:
Bill, thank you for describing the steps you took in disassembling your Farley. One thing I don't understand and I hope you, or someone, can help me. How do you remove the bag out of the rest? I've got a gen 1 Farley if that matters.

Thanks -- Todd
Click to expand...
Todd, just loosen both of the thumbscrews at the sides of the bag, pull out the plastic spacers next to the bag and pull the bag straight up and out. It's just sitting in the box, not attached in any way.

It's good to familiarize yourself with doing this. Every so often it helps to pull the bag out and "fluff" it up so the sand isn't packed as hard as a brick. It only takes a minute to do.
 
Jerry W said:
Todd, just loosen both of the thumbscrews at the sides of the bag, pull out the plastic spacers next to the bag and pull the bag straight up and out. It's just sitting in the box, not attached in any way.

It's good to familiarize yourself with doing this. Every so often it helps to pull the bag out and "fluff" it up so the sand isn't packed as hard as a brick. It only takes a minute to do.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the instruction on how to do this. ?
 
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