Aurora 88 Leaking

[warblerick]

I have a modern Aurora 88 demonstrator, which hasn't been used in quite a while, and had ink stored in it, and ink has leaked into the barrel outside of the piston. Does anyone know how or if the barrel can be taken off for cleaning it? It appears threaded, but I dont want to force anything.

[rogerico]

My Aurora 88 suffered the same issue. It was a problem with the sealing of the piston. I had to send it back to Aurora. Fortunately, they repaired it perfectly and I received my pen in two months.

 

It shouldnt happen, but it can be fixed.

[warblerick]

Ugh, this pen's already made that trip once. Hesitant to do it again.

[rogerico]

Ups! But I think it is the only way to fix the problem... Its a shame!

[warblerick]

Still hoping that someone knows how to get it apart. I'm getting ready to sell my home and hit the road for a few years, and don't know if and when I could find time to send it away and have it returned.

[praxim]

Caveat: I have not needed to take apart my modern 88 so the following is from inspection and other experience.

 

If you fully unwind the piston knob then look at the top surface of the now exposed barrel core you should see two radially opposed small slots at the outer edges. I expect that these will provide purchase for releasing the piston mechanism using s suitable two-prong key, the same as one does with a Montblanc (albeit a different size). You can look up MB repair for more information. The same is true of the Aurora Optima, being the same design most likely.

 

Whether the thread will be RH or LH I do not know, merely presuming the former more probable.

 

eta: you may wish to raise this again in the Repair forum, with a link to this conversation. I am sure a repairer has taken apart an Optima or modern 88 before.

Edited February 12, 2020 by praxim

[TassoBarbasso]

You can fix it yourself by buying an Aurora disassemble tool, like the one you can find on this page: https://pentooling.com/files.html

 

You unscrew the piston unit, add new silicone grease, and you should be good.

 

The problem is that the tool costs USD 65. But its certainly worth the price if youre US-based. If youre based in Europe, its still cheaper and faster to send it back to Aurora.

[warblerick]

You can fix it yourself by buying an Aurora disassemble tool, like the one you can find on this page: https://pentooling.com/files.html

 

You unscrew the piston unit, add new silicone grease, and you should be good.

 

The problem is that the tool costs USD 65. But its certainly worth the price if youre US-based. If youre based in Europe, its still cheaper and faster to send it back to Aurora.

Thanks for the info. I will keep it in mind.

[Babangita]

I fixed mine the same way as demonstrated on the pentooling site by just unscrewing the golden ring with my bare hands.

Guess I was lucky to get a good grip and that it hasn't been screwed in firmly to begin with in the factory.

I am happy with the pen as is, being able to service it myself once a year or so with no tools.

Good luck with the repair!

[Newton Pens]

Problem with not using the proper adhesive to close the piston unit back in, is that when unscrewing it, the whole piston unit could come out.

But yeah, they're easy to take apart.

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

Does anyone know how or if the barrel can be taken off for cleaning it?

 

I did that, for pretty much that very reason. In retrospect, it was a really bad idea. However, since you asked, the information you need can be found in this thread:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/196415-modern-aurora-88-piston-exploded-view/

 

You can fix it yourself by buying an Aurora disassemble tool, like the one you can find on this page: https://pentooling.com/files.html

_...‹snip›...

The problem is that the tool costs USD 65. But its certainly worth the price if youre US-based.

I strongly disagree with that assessment, considering the feasible alternatives. I used this:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/196415-modern-aurora-88-piston-exploded-view/?p=4201903

and it worked well enough. It cost me a spare paper clip, and the lead time to "delivery" was much shorter than ordering one online so that I could accomplish the particular task of disassembling the pen.

 

All the avoidable and irreversible cosmetic damage to my pen was caused not in the process of unscrewing the piston unit with the homemade tool, but what I did to the pen before and after that particular step. Of course, the irony was that I tried so hard to disassemble the pen because I was trying to "fix" a cosmetic problem in the first place. The pen writes completely fine in spite of ink being visible in the wrong place, but it just jarred my OCD sensitivities, far more so than just to keep the demonstrator looking lovely as if there is particular intrinsic beauty about a clear plastic barrel (I actually think demonstrators look inherently "cheap" and unrefined, compared to say the aurolide-bodied Aurora 88 pens).

[hari317]

here is a pdf of that article uploaded on archive.org with pictures intact.

 

https://ia803109.us.archive.org/16/items/ModernAurora88PistonExplodedView/ModernAurora88%20PistonExplodedView.pdf

[Newton Pens]

Also - the barrel is threaded over the ink window portion of the barrel. But it's also glued together so you won't be able to unscrew it, and if you heat it up enough to loosen the glue you'll probably ruin the barrel and ink window portion.