Hey all. I'm restoring some Esties and am putting in new j-bars. When I put them in, the lever goes far beyond 90 degrees -- in fact it flips all the way around to the other side. In most original Esties, the lever hits resistance somewhere along the bar, and seems to stop.

Am I doing something wrong? The pens seem to be filling, but the whole process just feels....less tight than it ought to be.

Thanks!

Dan

The new J bars you are putting in lack the tabs that the originals have. Actually, all replacement bars I've seen lack the tabs, so you are not alone.

Other than being a minor irritation, the lack of the tabs to stop the lever isn't particularly important, so I wouldn't worry. I suppose you might be able to modify them to add something, but it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

If you want authenticity, then you'll have to reuse J bars salvaged from old Estied you might find for parts.

Regards,

Gerry

What Gerry said. If you really need the stop, one can be added to the available J-bars. Somewhere in the tool boxes I have a punch I made to make the tab--eventually decided it wasn't worth it. If you want Estie J-bars, be prepared to pay about 5 each, they do come along. Unfortunately parts pens usually have bad J-bars (and bad jewels.)

Todd

Great, thanks so much. I figured it was something like that, since otherwise the mechanism seemed to be working fine.