I bought an old style M600 with the single gold ring and having a few troubles with it. When I went to fill it with ink the piston was very stiff so now the blind cap is loose. It goes around for about 3/4 of a turn before it will want to move the piston. It was a NOS purchase. Do I contact Chartpak or who can fix this for me? I goofed and should have sent the pen off to be services before I tried anything and would love to have it working well again.

I'd take the piston filler mechanism off and lubricate the seal, the threads and the propeller dog with pure silicon grease. hint: many automotive brake boosters are assembled using the finest silicone grease you may find, and a medium jar costs peanuts (medium jar for an automotive application: hundreds of small jars bought at specialities pen goods stores)

A little bit of play in the turning knob of a piston filler is quite normal and is there by design. On my Pelikan SF, there's a bit less than 1/8 turn of play. Same goes for my vintage birds - all of them float for roughly an 1/8 turn before engaging.

If you've really got 3/4 turn of play, it would be good to let a pro look at it. It's probably just slipped one thread out, so (probably) won't be a big deal for anyone that works on modern Pelikans. However, Chartpak's service is reputed to be awesome and this is a NOS pen. I'd give them a call and talk it over to see what they'll do for you.


Cheers,
Tom

Thanks for the advice Tom and jinaico. I will be calling Chartpak first thing Monday as I have no clue how to take apart the pen. If I had a junk one to learn on it would be great but I don't. On a different note the green barrel is beautiful but blue is still my favorite color. I love the way my blue M600 looks when filled with ink!

Mike

you unscrew the knob untill the piston reaches top travel (as in refilling with ink) and then keep on forcing the knob in that direction and the piston mechanism retainer pops out (press fitted)