1952 M400 Acting Up?

[truebean]

okay, so I was cleaning my vintage m400 and some blue ink started leaking out from between the end of the piston cap and the pen body. it had been filled with R+K alt-goldgrün, but the seller had had blue ink in it previously. it wasn't water and ink that was leaking, just ink. I got really worried that I had broken the piston, but it draws and expels water just fine. however, the piston cap feels slightly loose when in its resting spot (i.e., when the piston is withdrawn all the way; I have no idea what the technical term is for this). not every time, but some times, when I twist the cap into place, I hear a little expulsion of air (and then the ink sometimes appears) and the cap becomes loose.

 

check one of my previous comments––there is now water in the leaking ink. the water expelled from the nib is clean.

 

thoughts? your help would be greatly appreciated.

[sargetalon]

I'm a bit unclear on the pen's age. A vintage M400 doesn't exist. The M400 has been made 1982-present. I'll assume that you are talking about the original 400 from the 1950s which seems more plausible based on your scenario. It sounds like your pen is developing an incompetent piston seal. Not uncommon for a pen that's over 50 years old. No ink should ever come out of that space normally. The seal can be replaced by qualified repair personnel. You can check out Ron Zorn of Main Street pens who does this as well as others. The pen may still be usable for a period of time but the seal should be changed to avoid bigger issues and complete failure down the line.

[truebean]

yeah, the 400 (college is doing a number on me). thanks for the tip.

[Wandering Man]

I'll second Ron Zorn. He's a busy guy, but he does good work.

[Bo Bo Olson]

The first generation of plastic gaskets 1.0 @1940-1954 are not as good as the second generation 2.0.......1955-now. They gave up the ghost after 'only' 50-60 years.

Mine are still working well outside one pen of that era.....10-12 pens with first generation plastic gasket and only one with your problem. Not bad for 1.0.

 

It is not an expensive repair.

You could get a gasket cutter and small hole punch and new plastic gasket sheet for perhaps the same cost from Richard Binder.

The German piston pens out side the 800&1000 are not designed to be yanked apart much....so professional repair is what I advise. They are not Ahab or Twsbies..

 

What sort of nib do you have, a semi-flex or a maxi-semi-flex?

What width?

 

Some of my '50's Pelikans are semi-flex, some are maxi-semi-flex. There is no marking like on an Osmia to tell the difference, but it is either way a very good nib.

I do have a D nibbed 400 also. That's a nails nail, and I'm not really into nails, but it was in a live auction mixed pen lot.

 

Unless you have papers to date your pen to '52, I don't think you can tell if it's a '50-54 or unless it's one of them 1950's with the friction feed or a 1954, the last year of the 400.

'55 the 400n.....you do have to look twice to see the difference.

56-65 the 400nn.

82-97 the M400 with out the gold piston ring.

98-now the M 400 with the gold piston ring.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[canibanoglu]

If you can source a replacement seal the repair is quite trivial, piston removal in 400(N/NN)s is pretty straightforward, let the piston part stay in lukewarm water for a couple of minutes, remove the nib, push the piston out from the nib-side using a Chinese food stick. At least that's what I use myself.

 

This option might be cheaper and faster than sending out the pen to be repaired.

[MarkTrain]

Some useful information for repair of vintage 400/400n/400nn:

 

Replacement seals can be found here and here. The choice of which seal to use will probably depend on the age of the pen and which type of seal (black rubber or transparent plastic) was used originally. The piston can be removed as shown here.

 

The usual disclaimers apply.