Hello All,

I have had the good luck to purchase an early Pelikan 400 -- before the 400NN. The exterior of the pen is in excellent condition with no scratches, bite marks, and even very little scuff marking. There is even no brassing on the gold plated parts. The oblique medium nib needed some help, but thanks to the advice of wimg and kendallj I was able to smooth it out so that it writes very close to like butter.

The problem I have is that I need to replace the piston seal and can find no directions on vintage Pelikan repair. I must be looking in the wrong places. Then I thought to my self, "Self, I remember that some of the folks on FPN really like Pelikan pens. Maybe they might help."

So I ask for your help in explaining to me how I might be able to repair this fine pen without breaking it.

Ink2pen

I would contact Rick Propas. He's a Pelikan guru and can be reached at: rickp@batnet.com
He does great work.

I don't have any connection to Rick other than he is a friend that I hold in very high regard.

Hi Ink2pen,

The piston assembly can be removed as follows :
1 -Turn filling cap fully open till it gets blocked. Doing so one obtains a 2 mm gap between the filling cap & the barrel.
2- You will see a flatten part on the piston assembly bushing looking in the gap.
3 -Using a (self made, from metal sheet) fork wrench - 8.1 fork width, only 1.9 mm thick - on the flatten part one can unscrew the piston assembly.
4 -Turn counterclock wise to dis-assemble the piston assembly.

Note the piston seal is made from nylon & is very wear resistant. It would surprise me if it would leak. I suggest to flush & clean the barrel inside & the piston carefully and apply some silicone grease on the piston seal & the movement actuating screw.

Prior to re-assembling one should retract the piston completely & only turn with the piston assembly - NOT turning with the filling cap.
Start screwing in manually & lock down with the fork wrench.

If you want I will send you an exploded view of a Pelikan pen. Please send me an E-mail directly:
francis.goossens2@skynet.be
Being not so good with computers unfortunately I did not succeed to attach the Pelikan scan.

Wishing you succes,

best regards, Francis

Thank you all for your replies to my post. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but I have been rather ill with whatever it is that goes around this time of year.

Maybe now I can get back to looking at this Pelikan to see if I can repair it.

Ink2Pen