Parker 51 Collector Not Filling

January 21, 2021

Hi all,

I have rebuilt my 51 with a 'new' collector (the old one was cracked) and feed. The pen works well but if left for more than a minute I experience hard starts when I come to write again. I took the hood off to make sure it was not an issue with the hood applying pressure to the nib or anything similar, and the problem still persisted with the lid off.

Upon observing the collector with the pen full of ink, I notice that only a single slit of the collector is full of ink... The other slits are seemingly empty. When I squeeze the filler all the slits fill up but empty again as I release the squeeze bar. The interesting part is that when I take the feed out, with the pen still full of ink, I can clearly see the slits of the collector fill up (it is quite fascinating actually!). I then reinsert the feed and write for a while, only to find the hard starts come back and upon observation the collector seems to be empty again. It almost seems as if the feed is blocking the airflow?

The collector 'bung' is in place inline with the wide slit, and I align the feed slit (and nib) with the wider channel. Although I have tried aligning the feed with the narrower slit to no avail. I have cleaned the feed extensively and made sure it was unblocked with a thin piece of wire, and blowing in the end. It seems replacement collectors are really quite hard to source in the UK!

Is anyone familiar with any of these issues? Do I have a 'faulty' collector? Any help would be much appreciated!

Matt

January 22, 2021

The collector may or may not "fill" with ink, and the amount of ink in the collector will vary as you write. It's there to catch excess ink (hence "collector"} and prevent flooding, regulating the flow, but not actually carrying the ink to the nib. I would look elsewhere for the problem.

The hood could be too tight against the nib, the feed (which should be turned up a smidge at the end) may not be set right. Check the tine spacing. You should be able to fit a piece of 0.001" shim stock between the tines easily, and 0.002" with a little resistance. In your case, convert for metric... I would also all of the parts in a good surfactant, and then rinse well. Rapido Eze is a good pen cleaner.

Parker service information says that the location of the cut in the collector doesn't make any difference, and that the slit was not needed. I still put the wide slit at the top when I assemble the parts under the hood.