Dillon 550 Users

tbrwlf

tbrwlf

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Sudbury Ontario
I am having problems with the primer feeder. Almost every time I run the press up to deprime and resize and then come down to reprime, there is no primer. The bar is not coming all the way back. I tried to lube is with some case lube (nice dry spray type). Nothing.

I am wondering if the bar that pushes the feeder block back is bent.

Anyone else had problems like this. How did you fix it?


Thanks to all Dillon 550 users who respond.
 
Some thing is out of adjustment.
Make sure your primer fees tube in in the right orientation.
When at full up stroke, give the primer pick bar a tug towards you to see if it moves... the two bolts that hold the assembly might be too tight or unevenly torqued
 
Primer tube may be screwed down too tightly, or not seated into it's notch. Primer bar may be too tight, or a spent primer maybe lodged behind the bar restricting full movement.
 
I have had issues like yours. I contacted Dillon and they sent me a new primer assembly. Fixed my problems. No charge to me.

Contact Dillon they will help you out.
 
Remove silver primer feeder tube from black housing. Use two allen screws (plus a third) to removed black housing. Turn upside down to make sure there are no obstructions (sideways primers). Clean out using new dry paint brush (this step is not necessary, but tolerances are tight, so you want no dirt, dust or debris).
Next, inpect the tube that holds primers. Again, start with an empty, preferably new plastic tip (mine is blue for small rifle primers).

re-assemble, using NO GREASE or lubricant., hand tighten, then fully tighten down when ready to seat assembly.

you should now be able to move back and forth, with no issues. if it's not smooth, then unscrew, and adjust, retorque.

last step is to re-charge the primers. Use the yellow pickup tool, and fill up tube by pulling the pin.

It should be seated properly, and a primer should protrude somewhat. Put an empty shell in, resize it, decap and put in new primer. This is all one smooth motion. If it doesnt pickup a new primer, something may need more adjusting laterally. Call DILLON IF this doesnt happen.

(note: are you are using correct sized small or large pickup cup?) right sized shell plate number?

Hope this helps.
 
A common problem that Dillon refuses to acknowledge. I have 2 550 machines and they both worked great for about 5 years (and then I started to load for ipsc) and then both started to bind the last bit of the primer slide coming out which would mean a missed primer. I called Dillon and they said I was crazy and needed to bend the arm a bit and everything would be fine. Well I bent the arm and still it would miss primers, about 1 in 10 or so. I called them back and even sent them a video of the problem and they said it was the black slide that needed to be replaced and would send me 2 of them, one for each machine. I waited 3 weeks for them to show up and when I installed the new black (primer track bearing 14015) it worked like it should again for about 3 months and then just when I started to have confidence in my machines it started missing primers again. You can see wear marks on the black spring where it was binding.

Called Dillon back again and reiterated the whole story and the guy on the phone was adamant that I was the only person that this had happened too. I said looking at various forums it is a very common problem and he kind of laughed and basically said I was full of it.

I finally saw on a forum a guy that had come up with a longer track bearing and so I copied it and that was the last of the problems I have ever had with either of the 550's and that was probably at least 10000 rounds since then and never a missed primer. Here is a short video of basically what I copied https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI7HpdHvlco There is also a guy that sells a version with a bearing to keep the slide straight but he wants 25 bucks for it and then wants 25 more bucks to send to Canada and with our exchange rate now it is a little pricey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixzqd9iPMaQ

A quick test to see if it is the slide sticking on the black bearing is to put one thickness of high temp aluminum tape (about 1 thou thick) on the bottom of the Primer Feed Body 20263 to lift it up slightly to ease the binding. You will notice that when you lower the handle slowly all the way down (which pushes the primer holder back to get the next primer) when you are at the bottom of the stroke just grab the back of the primer slide and see if it will come back a bit to where it should be. Most likely it will work most of the time and then bind a bit and hence why the primers are being missed. Then take the feed body off and put the tape on the bottom of it and retry the handle test to see if it binds again. If it doesn't bind now that the tape is on there then you have a slight imperfection on the slide itself or the dreaded Dillon primer miss feed that Dillon refuses to acknowledge.
 
mine did it too. I cleaned it and bent the bar out a bit, haven't had any issues since.
the other thing it did was when loading .40 it seemed like it didn't push out the primer. I was taught a trick that you file part of the decapping pin.. cleared that issue as well.
 
hoochie has it right. I saw a video after posting this and that is all that is needed. there are two bends in the bar. You have to adjust both.

It works fine now.


Thanks for all the answers.
 
Bending the rod will work for a short while until the added force will wear the track bearing and the problem will come back again. Depending on how much you use your machine report back to us in 6 months and see if you had to bend the rod again or if everything is ok.
 
I agree with all the above posters. The only thing I have to add is that I use dry graphite on the black flat piece before I reassemble it. It seems to help the primer assembly slide all the way back.
 
Any updates on this topic over the past year?

I have had similar issues with mine and endless frustrations. Dillon sent me spare parts. I ended up taking the whole primer assembly appart, cleaning every part, reassembled, adjusted and so far OK after several K rounds loaded. One thing I noticed was that the quality of the replacement part was not up to the standard of the original in terms of finish. Still works though.

Thoughts?
Glockenspiel
 
Everything clean in the priming operation.
Q tips and isopropyl alcohol are your friend.

1) wet one end of the q tip and run it down the primer feed tube. Tubes can get dirty inside when going through a few 1000 per month. Did for me 15 years ago, forget the primer brand but am thinking fed
2 ) glue a mt 45 acp case on the top of the primer feed rod.
3) my 550b is 20 years old. The primer feed rod was segmented, very slightly, like bamboo. Couldn't see it but could feel it. A quick brush with an industrial scratch pad fixed it. Told Dillon perhaps they fixed it
 
I have a 550B with about 200,000 rounds through it. this is there weakness. ive wore out 4 primmer systems, but ive never seen this aftermarket longer plate. I'm sure ill try one next time.
 
I'm pulling the trigger on a 550 because I recently developed arthritis and cant take the number of pulls on my single stage anymore. (Rockchucker)

My reading so far has led me to believe the Dillon 550b is my best bet. I am surprised at all the fanboys waxing poetic about dillon, while the support threads are as full of problems like everyone else.

The primer feed problems sound solvable by careful initial adjustment or worst case scenarios aftermarket roller bearings/no BS support.

Are there any other 550b surprises I don't know about yet?

Primer slide block adjust/roller bearing
primer chute gate pin replace w paperclip

anything else?
 
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The strong mount with bullet tray is great to have. Also the spent primer chute usually needs a bit of tweaking to make sure it pivots open consistently.

curseyou said:
I'm pulling the trigger on a 550 because I recently developed arthritis and cant take the number of pulls on my single stage anymore. (Rockchucker)

My reading so far has led me to believe the Dillon 550b is my best bet. I am surprised at all the fanboys waxing poetic about dillon, while the support threads are as full of problems like everyone else.

The primer feed problems sound solvable by careful initial adjustment or worst case scenarios aftermarket roller bearings/no BS support.

Are there any other 550b surprises I don't know about yet?

Primer slide block adjust/roller bearing
primer chute gate pin replace w paperclip

anything else?
Click to expand...
 
I've had similar primer feed issues with mine. The primer bar is not moving smoothly and throwing the primers out of the pocket. i think the the spring is too weak and the rod to flexible causing binding. yes I've tried every lube i can think of. love it otherwise.
 
leonk05 said:
I've had similar primer feed issues with mine. The primer bar is not moving smoothly and throwing the primers out of the pocket. i think the the spring is too weak and the rod to flexible causing binding. yes I've tried every lube i can think of. love it otherwise.
Click to expand...

ive found almost no lube is the answer, and what I do when its time for a tune up is polish the plate and arm with a nice felt bob and some flitz on the dremel. once its all clean and polished I put a bit of CLP on it, and ive tried everything else but CLP seems the best, and then wipe it off just leaveing the finest of film. seems to be the answer for me. I also have had to pull the spring back a bit farther and clip it in to give it a bit more pull
 
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