I have just obtained a snorkel FP that on the outside looks great, writes well with dipped ink. The snorkel seemed to come out smoothly, so I tried to fill with water. It did not hold water. Then the plunger (terminology? the tube you pull in and out) became finicky, so I tried taking it apart. Oops - the spring is stuck in the barrel.

How do I get the spring out?
After that I want to replace sac and rings. What tools will I need for this?

Thanks much.
KC

First thing-- with the section and guts removed, try running the filling tube in and out a few times. Frequently it will catch the spring and pull it free.

Second-- get a bamboo skewer, and try getting the blunt end to catch between a couple of turns of the spring, and drag it out thus. The filling tube will need to be held at the top of its travel.

Third-- undo the blind cap (long, thin flat-blade driver needed), which is a good idea anyway in a seal-checking direction, and drop out the filling tube. Poke a skewer in from the tail and try to push the spring out.

Fourth-- Prayer or an air-strike. If none of the previous have worked, it's about that desperate.

OK,
I down to #3
How do I remove the blind cap?

Insert the screw-driver up through the barrel and turn it until it engages the slot in the screw at the far end. The screw is sometimes a little corroded and this engagement can be difficult, but it's usually not impossible. Once the driver is in place, I usually turn the blind cap rather than the driver just to keep the grip on the slot. Eventually, you should get this:

Drop the screw out through the barrel, PUT IT SOMEWHERE SAFE, and you can push the tube out after it.

Success at last after taking the blind cap off.

The spring is rusty. Would I be better off replacing spring or trying to clean it up? How do I de-rust it?

Is there a source for the springs? I have got the O rings, and have found sources for the sac, but not the spring/

Many Thanks.
KC

I know I'm not the only one here who's had a snorkel apart....

Depending on how rusty it is, it might need replacing, and I hope someone else will chime in with a source other than a donor pen. If it's not very rusty, do the following at some distance from the rest of the pen:

1) apply mineral oil to a cloth and/or q-tip.
2) rub the spring with small vigour to remove rust, remembering the inside.
3) with a dry cloth/q-tip, remove as much of the mineral oil as possible (which should be all but a few molecules).

Mineral oil is not good for the various rubber components in the pen, so the less of it that ends up in the finished product the better. This spring is not under huge stresses, so unless the rust has seriously deteriorated it all it should need is a bit of a clean-up. Even if not all the rust is off, the only time it's going to get exposed to more rust-inducing moisture is when the sac next fails, which hopefully will be while it's in the hands of someone who knows to act quickly in addressing the problem.

Oh, you'll also want to use a watery q-tip to swab the inside of the barrel for rusty fallout.

Wax the spring to prevent further rusting. Not perfect, but it will reduce future problems. Allow to dry completely, the hydrocarbon vapors in the solvents won't help things any.

Also, make SURE the spring will rotate in the cup on the sac protector. In the version that has a cup rather than a little shelf, you may need to slightly bend the end of the spring inwards toward the center of the coil a bit to keep it from snagging the cup and "unscrewing" it next time you have to remove the barrel.

Unless Ron Zorn will part with one, there are no new springs available that I know of, only rescues from other pens.

Peter

What sort of wax? Will silicone do the job?

I've seen this problem happening, and have always wondered why the original design had that cup thing - I assume that the shelf was the later version. I had one that had a totally mashed-up cup, though I sort-of managed to fix it by filling it with glue, and it seems to hold up (I'm sure that this is far from a state-of-the-art repair).

I've just been spending the afternoon fixing pens, and came across another snorkel with the spring stuck in the cup.

I'm pretty proud of myself in that this time I developped a non-destructive technique to open it up. Last time, I ended up forcing it and fixing the cup after the fact, which I was pretty cool with (on a beater pen with other problems such as a cracked barrel, but this last pen was really really nice).

Here's my technique:

1) Unscrew the section as far as it will go (at which point the caught spring blocks it.
2) Pull out the touchdown unit, bend to the side, and push back in. You'll feel it racking against the spring. Repeat several times.
3) Go to step 1. Repeat 1 & 2 as often as necessary.

What happens is that the spring is pushed up and releases from the blind cap end, turning a little, and allowing another 1/8 turn every time.

With enough patience, I finally got it opened using this technique, with minimal damage to the cup (although I had a hard time extracting the caught spring anyway).

If anyone has a better technique, please do share.

I'll replace the barrel seal, because although it had been replaced by the previous owner, I think that this amount of rough activity likely damaged it at least somewhat (which I expected).

Help! I got a spring stuck too! None of the above has worked yet...

Has anyone tried the obvious? Use a stiff wire with a small/tiny hook at the end, insert, rotate it to catch the spring and pull. A dental tool is perfect for this task. I often break off some ends of big hooks/curves on dental tools to get the size I want to use. Try not to scratch the inside of the barrel.

Been there, done that - worked for me too! Highly recommended.

Gerry

Thanks, Fred & Gerry. That is encouraging. I'll try that next.

Oh, sure, if you've got proper tools for a job....

Proper tools? Just ask your dentist for broken/non-useable ones. Have acquired a bunch of same over the years---some used for pen work, some for wood refinishing and some for decorative plaster picture frame restoration. Some of my friends use them for model RR'ing, other model building, electronics repair and the like---indispensible little things at the right price. They can be ground on a whet stone (with a little oil) to exactly what is needed for the task.