Parker 51 repair

[dnr]

So I ended up with 3 of my Father-in-Law's 51s after he passed away. I am pleased in the sense that he really used and abused these pens. I was getting something with some history.

 

AAR, one is a vacumatic and I know what is required to fix it. The other two are perhaps aerometrics. I say perhaps because one of the two had the bottom section off screwed off. After cleaning it off, one could see what was left of a rubber sac on the front section and the remnants in the back, as well as a metal ring in the plastic. Perhaps this is what held the sac in place? The pen has been apart for years, so it is not a surprise that I cannot find the breather tube of the feed tube for the front section.

 

The third pen is odd in that the back section seems to have been suctioned/collapsed onto the aerometric section. Once again, I am assuming aerometric as there is no blind cap hiding a plunger. Truly, it seems like someone heated the back section then sucked on it to minorly collapse in. Anyone know who to remove this section? I have idea, but I'd rather ask first!

 

Thanks in advance,

Dan

[Ron Z]

Oh my. Before you go any farther, please read the articles on Richard Binders web site about the anatomy of a Parker 51. That will answer many questions.

 

Second, if you haven't worked on pens before and a 51 in particular, please don't learn on your dad's pens! You do want to have them to use, and you don't want to break them, which would be likely to happen if you try do do it yourself. I, or a number of other qualified repair people would love to repair the pens for you to get them in working condition.

 

Repairing them is not rocket science, but there are a number of things that could go wrong, and a number of things to do to get them to work right. Restored properly, they're wonderful pens.

[dnr]

Hi Ron,

I did look at Richard Binder's site. As one of the pens was already apart (hood, barrel, etc.), I proceeded to soak it in water. The collector seems to be in good shape and is clear plastic. It is firmly affixed to the connector. The nib and feed look to be in decent shape, so that is a good sign. Soaking the barrel let the sac guard fall out. Using Richard's site as a reference, it is clearly a Mark I as it has a plastic end cap.

 

What is baffling is the sac. One would expect a Pli-Glass, but the ossified remains clearly are rubber sac. Perhaps someone else's attempt at a repair? As I said, as received, there was no breather tube in sight.

 

My assumption was that these three were headed to the trash bag when someone remembered I like FPs. I'll save the vacumatic for someone to repair/refurbish. The other assumed aero will sit around waiting repair after the vacumatic. That swaged body look makes me wonder it will give up the barrel easily and in one piece!

 

Based on the condition of the pens and caps, I certainly won't be doing this to make any money. I am guessing I'll be lucky to get two pens out of it and am hoping for one. Not knowing how the breather tube came out of the one above makes me wonder about its viability.

 

Thanks for any and all comments!

 

Dan

[dnr]

After looking at the parts, it looks like this may be a "franken" 51. While the collector is clear, the nib and feed do not have extension or hole for a breather tube. The feed does have a channel on the top of it as it goes into a 14K nib with a star on it. The back end of the assembly where the collector is attached is made to accept a sac and is hollow on the inside pretty much like that if a touchdown. The Mark I sac protector slips right over the section that holds the collector; so loose that I do not thing it attaches.

 

Perhaps this was a vacumatic pen that had the barrel removed and replaced with an aeromatic one and the sca protector added so that one could fill the sac? Very odd. I tried to attach a photo, but I kept getting server errors.

 

Thanks!

[Tommy]

A picture would help. Try using a photo hosting service like Photobucket. I don't think you can upload the pics directly like you used to.

[dnr]

A picture would help. Try using a photo hosting service like Photobucket. I don't think you can upload the pics directly like you used to.

 

Thanks! If I did get something like photobucket, how would I post the pic? Most of the forums I belong to accept direct uploading of a small pic, so one gets rustly on doing it otherwise.

 

Thank you!

Dan

[Tommy]

A picture would help. Try using a photo hosting service like Photobucket. I don't think you can upload the pics directly like you used to.

 

Thanks! If I did get something like photobucket, how would I post the pic? Most of the forums I belong to accept direct uploading of a small pic, so one gets rustly on doing it otherwise.

 

Thank you!

Dan

 

You upload your pics to photobucket and it will create the code to paste into your FPN posting. Takes a little more time, but it's not hard.

[dnr]

Does the picture show up now?

 

 

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad284/dnr_01/old51.jpg

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

dan

Edited December 1, 2009 by dnr

[FarmBoy]

Yes the picture shows up.

 

You are missing a filler tube. The feed should come out of the nib. The collector should come out of the connector. I'm betting the nipple on the connector is mush.

 

The pen sort of looks like an early Aero Demi.

 

Not difficult to obtain parts and not a difficult assembly to complete the pen.

[richardandtracy]

The barrel looks in a pretty bad way too. It may be worth considering its replacement.

 

There should be a hole in the back of the feed for the filler tube to go into. Once you've located this, it's possible to fit a replacement tube. If there is no hole in the feed, then... I'm stumped. You may have to get a replacement feed too. Ernesto at http://www.parker51.com/parts.html does them.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Ron Z]

I will hedge by saying that it's tough to get the details from a picture, but will risk comments based on experience.

 

It rather looks like the sac nipple on the connector has been repaired - or a repair was attempted, because it's white. If the pen had the not uncommon problem of the nipple going soft, this would be about right. If it is indeed something other than the black of the connector, you'd want to replace the connector or have the repair done right.

 

The sac is missing of course. Is there damage to the barrel? Flared out or cracked? Hard to tell with the shadow in the picture.

 

re. the breather tube. That is missing, and should be replaced with a metal tube. I and a number of other people have them - I make them out of stainless steel with the right size hole drilled in the right spot. The feed will have a hole in the end for the breather tube, but it could be closed off, clogged, or the tube broken off (most likely) with the remains stuck in the end. There are instructions pinned at the top of the repair forum on how to remove the broken breather tube.

 

If the barrel is OK, you could have the pen restored, or try it yourself. If the barrel is damaged, you might want to consider it to be a parts pen.

[dnr]

Thanks for the responses. I have taken a few more pictures now that I know how to operate the camera better.

 

The barrel is scratched up, but outside of a slight flair at the part where it screws in, it looks serviceable. I decided not to take any pictures of it as I don't think one can tell much more?

 

Here is a close-up of the section with the remaining sac removed (the white part in the first picture posted). It does not look too bad. A little more cleaning and the sac end should look fine. The roughness is mostly shellac. The collecter, while banged up looking, seems to have no all the way through cracks.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad284/dnr_01/old51secB.jpg

 

Here is a shot of the section from the top down. You can kind of see the hole all the way through.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad284/dnr_01/old51secA.jpg

 

Here is a shot of the nib and feed. I added a dime to show scale. You can see the square cut notch in the feed.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad284/dnr_01/old51nib.jpg

 

Here is my final picture. In it, I placed the feed nib down in the section. It gives a better look of the end of the feed. It looks clean as in nothing was cut off or broken off.

http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/ad284/dnr_01/old51nibB.jpg

 

Thanks again for the comments. I look forward to seeing if these pictures help matters.

Thanks again!

Dan

Edited December 2, 2009 by dnr

[FarmBoy]

Your nib and feed don't look like Parker to me. The nib almost looks gold plated with the plating wearing off.

 

I've also not seen a 51 nib with a star on it but that doesn't mean they don't exist, it just means I've never seen or heard of one existing but Parker did put stars on vac nibs.

 

Ron? Any ideas.

 

Todd

[dnr]

I didn't show it, but the nib is stamped "14" on one side of the star and "KR" on the other. The lighting may make it look worn. I keep wondering if my wife's ol' man didn't have a favorite pen modified so he could keep on using it. He'll never tell and his wife does not remember. At any rate, the detective work can be fun.

 

Thanks!

 

Dan

[gyasko]

I agree that the nib looks gold-plated, especially around the hole. Also, the collector doesn't look like it has enough fins. Interesting!

[ZeissIkon]

I just read in another area of FPN of an East German knock-off copy of a P51, called a Markant -- that'd be the sort of pen where I'd expect to find too few collector fins and a plated nib.

[Ron Z]

Not Parker parts. The 51 feed does not have the slit like that, there's no breather tube, and the nib would be gold, not gold plated. I haven't seen a 51 nib with a star on it either. They kept the parts pretty consistent for a long time.

 

I did see one really weird 51 feed in a pen, and it was original. I'm not sure what I did with it, but I think I sent it to either Daniel or Richard. I'll have to see if I can dig up the picture. But at any rate, while it's possible that the connector could be Parker, I doubt that the other parts are.

 

Does the collector have a wide cut across the top, with a very thin cut 180 degrees away from it?

[dnr]

Not Parker parts. The 51 feed does not have the slit like that, there's no breather tube, and the nib would be gold, not gold plated. I haven't seen a 51 nib with a star on it either. They kept the parts pretty consistent for a long time.

 

I did see one really weird 51 feed in a pen, and it was original. I'm not sure what I did with it, but I think I sent it to either Daniel or Richard. I'll have to see if I can dig up the picture. But at any rate, while it's possible that the connector could be Parker, I doubt that the other parts are.

 

Does the collector have a wide cut across the top, with a very thin cut 180 degrees away from it?

 

The collector has no cuts to speak of, outside of the radial cuts you see in the photo. The barrel is certanly marked Parker 51 and the hood seems to be legit, but with no markings as is usual for 51s.

 

I guess the ol' man had an odd one for a fountain pen.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[Ron Z]

I have a nib that came into the shop in a pen that was in a bag of parts 51s. It looks like a 51 nib, but the stamping is very crude, and it's gold plated. It makes me wonder if someone out there was making replacement parts for 51s. I'll have to post a picture of the nib alongside an genuine part later today.

[NABodie]

I read something some time ago about a company in Italy that, early on, was making a copy of the 51. The pens as I recall looked almost identical to the real thing and had PARKER stamped on the barrel. Seems like the company name started with an S.... I'll have to see if I can find that again.

 

Found it: Link