I asked this question in the Pelikan forum and did not get any responses. I hope no one minds that I repost the question in this forum.

I have a black MK30 which I got off of Ebay. The pen writes wonderfully; my problem is with the piston fill. Turning the piston is difficult because it is so very tight. Being unfamilar with the pen, I am reluctant to force anything. Is there an easy/correct way to take off the nib so that I can lubricate the piston for easier filling?

TIA,

William (Neophyte Pelikan Lover)

i have only seen pics, do not have one so take this as conjectural. of course nib and feed won't pull or screw out because they are hooded. the section however may unscrew if heat is applied above the gold trim region of the section, rather like parker 51 nose cone. i would try with hot water not other forms of heat. once you get the section unscrewed, the piston chamber can be lubed easily. to reassemble, use tryphon's section sealant, applied with a toothpick.

Thanks, that sounds like a safe plan. I am making a Tryphon order in the next couple of days and need to get some section sealant anyway.

Thanks again,

William

you will find the section sealant pillbox awfully hard to open at times. i use an alcohol lamp flame to heat the sides of the lid, so it gets released. same for the actual sealant---unless you live in texas, the thing will be frozen solid, like amber. a few licks of the flame, and enough gooey sealant will come off on a toothpick for application.

Viv, you are correct, as the sealant you have is the harder type. I now make it softer, so the jar opens easily, although some pen repairers prefer the harder type, which I do produce on special order.

gio, i would prefer the harder type for chiefly the following reason: if the pen is usually held around where the sealant has been applied, you would not want heat of the hand to easily soften the sealant, because it might cause the section to slip out again.

After a stern lecture from an un-named member of the forum I decided to send it off for cleaning and adjusting. I won't mention his name, but I felt like an old grizzly bear had given me a talking to on the subject.

William

depends on what the pen's worth to you. if you paid not much money, then attempting to open it yourself is not a bad idea, provided you have some basic repair experience. i have repaired several piston fillers when i did not know anything about them. with some degree of caution and intuition, it is generally possible to 'figure out' a pen.

sending it off for a piston seal replacement is probably warranted, but unless the pen's worth a lot to you, does sending it off for a mere re-greasing worth it as well?

MOI ????????

I told Bill to talk to Kendra at Chartpak about relubing the piston.... from what he described to me that is all it sounds like it needs.

Have you simply tried lubricating the piston with a weak lubricating solution ? That´s what I´ve done with several Montblanc and Pelikans with stiff pistons Some people suggest a cup of water with some drops of glycerin in it; others suggest vaseline. Just fill and empty the pen a few times with this, and it usually helps a lot. Much simpler tna taking the whole thing apart.

That is a good idea to try. Since this pen is my first Pelikan and I absolutely love the way it writes, I am nervous about disassembling it. I have the pen here at work, and will give the lubrication idea a try.

Thanks to all for suggestions.

William

as far as lubrication idea goes, i have tried it with some success, nathan in an old website endorsed using a few drops of pure vegetable glycerine in water in order to uptake that mixture into a vac-fil sheaffer in order to keep the seal supple. i would not use vaseline as:

1. it is petroleum based, and as is well known, only pure non-petroleum based lubricants (like pure silicone grease) should be used for piston seal lubrication;

2. it is hydrophobic, so that your pen will not flow properly again.

pure vegetable glycerin can be found in organic food stores. also, do not use baby oil or mineral oil instead!

A friend of mine, who is a professional chemist, has made a rather startling suggestion: using KY (a condom lubricant) on pen pistons. He says it is very fluid, totally inert, soluble in water,made specially to interact with rubber... I haven´t tried it yet, but it sound like it might work...

I have been following this discussion and have an observation.... I am no specialist on Pelikan pens. BUT, I would think that any water soluble lubricant would not be what you want to lubricate the piston seals on the pen.
Here is my reasoning, for what it is worth, ink is water based. Would it not stand to reason then, that if you used a water based lubricant for the pen, that the ink would further disolve the lubricant and you would end up right back where you started.
When the piston of my 200 got a bit sticky, I removed the nib and used a foam Qtip to apply just a slight touch to the inside of the barrel... after running the piston back and forth, it was like new and I have not had a problem since.
The difference here is that the M30 is a hooded nib pen and the nib is not removeable, so what I did will not work.

old griz has it right---to do the lubing in an effective manner, you would need to access the chamber--i am pretty sure that this piston filler's section will unscrew with a bit of heat, and give you access to the piston chamber. several piston fillers with hooded nibs have this property, in fact you can even see the threads above the window where the section screws into the barrel.

the KY/glycerine idea will at most cause the seal to retain its suppleness in a pen like vac-fil. even silicone grease eventually gets either washed away by the constant action of ink, or else reacts with ink pigment to form an ugly strand line on the top of the piston window, which is why one must use silicone grease sparingly and repeat the procedure often.

i certainly would steer clear of vaseline at all costs!