Lamy Dialog 3 Sticky Door Fix

[Quicksilver]

Recently, I noticed my Dialog 3 had been getting somewhat "stiff" in its functionality. As the nib came out, the door acted like it wanted to hang up on the back edge of the nib, and you sort of had to double clutch it to get it to fully extend. This was not ideal, and I was worried something was wrong.

 

Now, if you've had or looked at a Dialog 3, you know these things are notoriously well built - which is to say, they're solid, and they aren't easy to dig into. In fact, I have yet to find a way to take apart the front barrel that I'm confident wouldn't destroy something in the process (if anyone's done this, please let me know!). So, diagnosing the sticky door was proving a big challenge.

 

It turns out, however, that the fix for this is very simple. I'll try to get pictures later, but I need to hunt down a good macro lens due to what needs to be shown.

1. Take off the rear barrel
2. Take out the nib assembly
3. (Optional) Run the front barrel through an ultrasonic cleaner, or soak in a little ammonia water overnight if you think there's any dried/gummed up ink in it. Honestly, I've never known this nib assembly to leak though.
4. Put the rear barrel back on (dry the front assembly thoroughly if you cleaned it in step 3).
5. Twist it to open the trapdoor on the front.
6. With a Q-tip, take a very tiny bit of silicone grease, and rub it around the pivot gear point on the inside of the door. This is the part that really needs a picture, but I don't have one yet. Basically, if you shine a light in the front while working the door, you'll see the points where it pivots, and on one side where the barrel engages a gear that opens and closes it. This is the part that needs the help. You don't need to go crazy. I just lightly drew the Q-tip across the surface of the grease and rubbed it around.
7. Put everything back together.
8. Test the mechanism.

For me, this made a night and day difference immediately, and saved me sending it in to Lamy to look at.

[jwdavis]

Thank you Quicksilver, you explanation helped me a lot. I had the same problem "Sticky door" and the fountainpen did not easily twist anymore. The nib came out only half. But I did put some lubricant in the mechanism ....and voila it works fantastic again.

 

regards,

 

Jan-Willem

[fpnnm]

 

jwdavis, .

[Lemur]

Hello Quicksilver,

 

Thanks for the instructions - this solved the quite "sticky" operation on my Dialog 3.

 

Regards Lemur

[Quicksilver]

Awesome guys! Glad to know that this helped folks out. I just got my pen workbench set up, so I'll try to attach some pictures before too long too.