This summer, I found a very nice Balance. It is black with silver furniture and a military clip. It came to me in working condition and suits me right down to the ground.
I noticed that the operation of the lever filler mechanism was a little stiff - stiffer than any of my other lever fillers. I thought that the sac was beginning to harden. Yesterday I removed the section to have a squint at the sac. The sac is an exceptionally thick one, but, indeed, it was dry and rather stiff. When I pulled the section and sac out of the barrel, the pressure bar came out with it. The pressure bar is the most complicated one I have seen to date: it is made of hard spring steel and is constructed to hinge at both ends, presumably to squash the sac along its entire length. The curved, hook-like end (the part that pushes into the blind end of the barrel) was broken.
Two questions:
1.) The broken end seems to be too small to wedge the pressure bar mechanism into the barrel. Does the pressure bar just ride on the sac and float inside the barrel?
2.) A short length of narrow plastic tape came out with the sac and pressure bar mechanism. Where was it located inside?
Thanks for any information you can provide.
Paddler