How do I dismantle a Pelikan 100?

[Christos Christoforou]

Dear All

I have a vintage Pelikan 100.

I filled the pen but the cork must have either dried or it is damaged
(I hope it was just dried!) so there is some ink in the barrell behind
(above) the cork piston.

How can I remove the piston assembly so I can clean the pen?

thanks
christos

[fdu...@aol.com]

To take apart the pen to "clean" this is asking for trouble. Once again
we have the silly notion of cleaning pens for no reason. If it
works--use it as is. If it does leak cleaning will never fix the
problem. The cork or piston will need to be replaced. Forget it unless
you have Da Book and know exactly what you are doing. The filler
assesembly is removed by unscrewing with reverse threads. In other
words you tighten the filler (in the normal sense) into the barrel to
unscrew it. Frank

[BLandolf]

On 2 Sep 2003 13:20:33 -0700, eah...@yahoo.com (Christos
Christoforou) wrote:

Christos... Do *not* try to remove the piston assembly by tightening
down the piston knob as you will snap the worm gear in no time flat.
The piston knob and worm gear are all one piece on those old Pelikans.
If you look at your pen closely, you'll notice a black collar just
above the green celluloid sleeve. It's about 8mm wide on a 100 and
about 3mm wide on a 100N. That black piece is actually the top of the
piston assembly. Given that the top part of piston assembly is exposed
like that, there is absolutely no reason at all to risk breaking the
filler by over-twisting the knob.

The best way to remove a piston assembly from either a vintage or a
modern Pelikan is to turn the piston knob counter-clockwise to expose
the threads underneath the piston knob and then, using a narrow
pliers, grab hold of the piston assembly where you see the flattened
portion of the threads (the flattened porition is there to accept
pliers) and unscrew the assembly clockwise (the piston assembly is
reverse threaded). You can also remove the assembly by using a piece
of rubber (such as a piece of bicycle inner tube)or leather and
grabbing hold of the collar piece (the piston's nose cone) above the
celluloid sleeve and unscrewing. The piston assembly may be
"cemented" in there with dried ink, so some careful soaking may be
required to loosen things up.

It really doesn't matter if the cork is dried or damaged... If it is
the original, it should be replaced anyway. It's not that hard to
do... You can cut another seal out of a wine cork or you can buy extra
seals from German dealers. If your pen is in really good shape, it's
worth multiple hundreds of dollars, and I'd have someone experienced
in Pelikan repairs do it for you. If you'd like some names, let me
know. Martin Lehmann wrote a piece on Pelikan repairs in the Summer
2001 issue of the Pennant. It's the best discussion of basic Pelikan
repairs I've seen bar none.

Here's a pic that shows the parts (from Dittmer & Lehmann's book)...

http://www.toad.net/~blandolf/personal/disassembled-pelikans.html

Bernadette