Pelikan M400 - Stiff Piston

[Rabbit]

I'm sure I'm not the first person who's done this -- have a pen inked and then it gets "misplaced" somewhere only to be found months later with ink dried in it. Probably not a big deal with a C/C filler, but unfortunately this has recently happened to my white tortoise M400.

 

After several flushes and filling the pen with water and letting it sit for a few days followed by more flushes, I have gotten most of the ink out. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking this through very well and I probably did a bad thing by twisting the piston before I had loosened up all the ink and now a small ink ring appears where the piston had been sitting (mid barrel). And somehow during flushing I have gotten a little bit of moisture behind the piston (just water it appears, not ink.). I never immerse barrels in water, but I did have wet hands when flushing so that's probably how the moisture got up there.

 

The most noticeable problem though is that the piston is now pretty stiff to turn.

 

Is there a way to remove the piston from the barrel to do a thorough cleaning of the barrel and then apply a bit of lube or would I be better off just removing the nib and applying a bit of silicon grease to the piston from there and stopping at that?

 

--Stephen

[jotterius]

Unscrew the nib unit and then with a toothpick apply some silicon grease in the barell walls and then work the piston a few times.

[Ted Andkilde]

I would back off the blind cap so water can get into the mechanism, unscrew the nib unit and soak the body thoroughly, at least overnight, more if necessary. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner it will move along quicker.

 

After the soak, "flick" as much water as you can out of the works, then let it dry out before re-lubing the piston with silicone grease.

 

A modern Pelikan should happily take a soaking.

 

You 'could' knock the mechanism out with heat and a drift, but I would leave that for the experts, too easy to crack a barrel. Just as an FYI, even ChartPak (Pelikan's US repair center) doesn't service barrels, they toss them and replace them.

 

Cheers. Ted

[pajaro]

I have had this same thing happen to my M400 white tortoise. I couldn't get it to work freely with long soaks with water, so I used the dab of silicon grease on a toothpick. Now the piston moves freely and easily. I might have put too much silicon into the barrel, though, because I have noticed some difficulty starting the OM nib. So, put the smallest dab of silicon grease on the toothpick that you can manage.

[Koenigsblau]

On my Pelikans I use Paraffin Oil, also called "Mineral Oil". This is a petroleum product and a "pen doctor" recommended this to me. He uses it on the old Pelikans with cork seals and I guess it cannot be wrong with new models. The big advantage is that you can get it in pharmacies or drug stores.

 

Unscrew and remove the nib unit, retract the piston. Try to remove the ink ring with a wet (watered) Q-Tip from the inside.

 

Take another Q-Tip and apply a tiny amount of paraffin oil (do not fully soak the cotton). Then apply the oil to the inner surface of the barrel. After moving the piston up and down a few times, the friction should have reduced greatly. If the ink ring is still there, try to rub it off with the oily Q-Tip. I noticed that the oil sometimes helps th remove ink rings.

 

As for the water in the back: do not disassemble the pen mechanism. Fill the pen, then back off the blind cap so that the piston is half way off it's end position. This leaves a gap between the barrel and the knob where water can evaporate over time. Be patient, after a few weeks the water will be gone.

 

Do not place the pen on a radiator or other heat source for drying. The material might deform.

 

Let us know if this or any other advice was successful.

[Paul-in-SF]

Reviving this very old thread to ask what if the piston knob doesn't move at all? I have soaked out all the old ink, but it hasn't helped so far.

 

This is a beat-up old-style M400, with an interesting EEF nib (they had such things?) and a cap in decent shape, but everything below the grip section is not good. The barrel is kind of chewed up and so is the piston knob. In fact, under magnification, it looks like part of the outside of the barrel has been slightly melted, either with heat or some chemical. It doesn't seem to have changed the shape, just the surface smoothness is gone. But most importantly, the piston just doesn't move at all. The piston appears to be withdrawn all the way (about 5 cm from the open end of the grip section). I have some super slick silicone oil from Pentooling, I let three drops into the barrel from the front end, and it is sitting upright in a small glass bottle so the oil can possibly penetrate and loosen the piston. I'm going to let that sit overnight. If that doesn't at least loosen something, I'm not sure what to try next. Maybe some pen flush to see if that will be more effective in dissolving the old crud around the piston than water was? Any information or suggestions welcome.