Pelikan 100/400 Piston Seal Trick

[newlife]

Hello everybody!

 

I was a little angry having bought a Pelikan 100N whose piston didn't seal up enough. The seal was just a tiny little bit too small, maybe because of aging, quite usual with that kind of pen. Some time ago I bought some spare seals, but they turned out to be white, unfavourable with the transparent ink window. Well, the seal disappears when in upper position, but not with the 400 models. Apart from that I wanted to save money. So I thought about ways to increase the seal's diameter. Paper did not seem a good choice, so I finally came to the solution: teflon tape! You know, the kind you use in the sanitary area!?

 

So I took off the seal, wrapped about two or three turns of tape around and put the seal back on. It still fits nice and tight because of the tape's flexibility, seemingly without risk of losing its hold when sucking up ink. Now that tape was far too broad, so I cut it with a scalpel right below the seal's edge, so there's not the faintest hint for tape under the seal.

 

Applying a minimum dose of silicon oil I worked the piston back into the shaft, and putting the tip of my tongue against the frontal opening of the barrel I turned up the piston. And the vacuum was perfect again, my tongue was sucked in far better than before. That's my method of testing seals, works fine.

 

Hope I could help you!

 

Cheers, Klaus

[whych]

I should imagine as long as the cork isn't totally bad. it could be used to breathe a new life into a lot of older seals that have worn.

 

Natural cork has a limited lifetime. My old 1980 wines have to be opened very carefully to get the cork out in one piece and I should the same is true of the piston seals even though they were treated before use.

[newlife]

Oh sorry, I for got to mention that the seals I'm talking about are made of some transparent plastic . . .

 

Klaus

[colex]

Hi all,

 

I've bought a Pelikan 100C in good aesthetic condition

 

http://i.imgur.com/YaKNVC2.jpg

 

 

 

 

but, has trouble filling water/ink, the resin piston seal had hardened and shrunk and I think I need a new replacement, like the version in this pic. Could you tell me where I can find one?

 

Thanks in advance for reply.

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/txgXfbX.jpg

 

 

 

 

Ciao,

Sergio

[colex]

http://i.imgur.com/080kAqp.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I've tryed your "teflon" trick...

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/kT3WQEx.jpg

 

 

 

Is not perfect but, it should work, I'm looking for the right spare part...

 

 

Maybe this?

 

http://i.imgur.com/h23V8IZ.jpg

[christof]

 

 

 

Maybe this?

 

http://i.imgur.com/h23V8IZ.jpg

 

This seals work well for Pelikan 100N and 400. Pelikan 100 seals are slightly smaller in diameter. Perhaps it is possible to grind down a little bit...? never tried that.

[newlife]

Some time ago I bought some of those white seals too. Indeed I had to grind them down by wrapping sanding paper around when already mounted to the piston and turning the piston inside. The only disadvantage is - the seals are clearly visible through the ink window. That's somehow not so fine with transparent pens like the 400's.

 

@colex: You've wrapped the teflon outside the seal!? I really meant taking the seal off and wrap the teflon round the piston in order to make the old seal thicker. Hope your method works well too!

Edited March 15, 2013 by newlife

[colex]

Some time ago I bought some of those white seals too. Indeed I had to grind them down by wrapping sanding paper around when already mounted to the piston and turning the piston inside. The only disadvantage is - the seals are clearly visible through the ink window. That's somehow not so fine with transparent pens like the 400's.

 

@colex: You've wrapped the teflon outside the seal!? I really meant taking the seal off and wrap the teflon round the piston in order to make the old seal thicker. Hope your method works well too!

 

 

 

There is shop in Europe that sell this white seals, the one of pic is in USA, I will make a try.

 

How can I take off this synthetic seal... I'm scary to pull or twitst to take it off and broken it

Do you've a picture of your wrapping method?

 

Thanks

[newlife]

Sorry, I did not take any photos while working on that Pelikan 100, but I would try warming the seal with your hairdrier to soften it, that won't do any harm.

[colex]

The only question of this remedy is that the original rubber seal turn on itself freely, with Teflon tape, instead, it remains fixed!

Perhaps, the excessive contrast may damage the knob?!?!

Edited March 15, 2013 by colex

[newlife]

If you watch the piston going in an out of its housing while turning you may notice that the piston itself does not turn at all, that's the way Pelikans do it. Your seal turns freely because of shrinking I believe. Piston seals do not have to turn freely, you need the friction for sealing and to suck up the ink, right?

[colex]

If you watch the piston going in an out of its housing while turning you may notice that the piston itself does not turn at all, that's the way Pelikans do it. Your seal turns freely because of shrinking I believe. Piston seals do not have to turn freely, you need the friction for sealing and to suck up the ink, right?

 

Are not very agree with this but, the old cork pistons seal not turns freely as this rubber seal!

[user01]

Hi there,

 

let me revive this thread.

 

I have a similar problem with my Pelikan 100. The pen has one of the clear(ish) synthetic seals and the seal does not do its job. The seal is hardly in contact with the inside of the barrel.

 

Where can I buy a replacement seal? I would prefer to buy form an European shop to receive the part as soon as possible.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Ron Z]

The plastic seals are available from David Nishimura.

[user01]

Thanks.

 

I found a webshop that sells seals that apparently fit the Pelikan 100 in Europe.

Here´s a link http://www.custompenparts.co.uk/11-pelikan

 

Would these also work? Any suggestions?

[Ron Z]

It will fit a vintage 100. Modern Pelikan M100- M800 seals are smaller.

[slippery when wet]

This is a link to a thread on this forum where a member used the seal to the end of a syringe which I thought to be quite clever

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/214845-montblanc-333-12-334-12-234-12-wartime/

[user01]

This is a link to a thread on this forum where a member used the seal to the end of a syringe which I thought to be quite clever

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/214845-montblanc-333-12-334-12-234-12-wartime/

Thank you very much for proving this link. I ordered a piston seal from custompenparts.co.uk but I am still waiting for the delivery. I will keep you updated.

[user01]

As promised, here is the update.

 

The piston seal I received does not fit. The diameter is too large and I decided to modify the seal by filing it down to size. As far as I can tell my effort resulted in a working piston seal but only time will tell how good the result really is.

 

Total Cost: about 15 USD and 1 hour of work

[Ron Z]

Like I said before, the after market seals sold are too big for the modern Pelikans. Even the 800 uses the smaller seals found in modern 100-600 pens.

 

Do check the back of the pen frequently. You may be OK, but it doesn't take much scoring on the seal for ink to sneak past the seal into the back end of the pen, even when the pen seems to fill just fine.