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Thread: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

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    Default Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Hello,

    I recently acquired an all black Pelikan M120, by M&K . It has not been used in years. There is evidence of dried ink on the nib, feed and ink window. The piston will not move and I do not want to damage it. Can anyone suggest ways to loosen the piston without damage? Any suggestions will be appreciated.


    Thanks,

    N.K.

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    Junior Member dante231's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Soak it!

    Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Hello,

    Thanks for the advice. I soaked the nib & feed overnight. That did the trick. Now the piston works as it should.

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    FPG Donor ♕ Chrissy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Once you soak a Pelikan enough to be able to unscrew the nib and feed, it should then be easy enough to get the piston working
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    After you fully disassemble and clean the piston, etc. don't forget to put a bit of silicone grease on the moving parts....

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    FPG Donor ♕ Chrissy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    I'm not sure that the OP is intending to go to the extreme of fully disassembling and cleaning all of the piston parts. He just wanted to get it moving again. Once the nib unit is out and the barrel is all clean inside, a Pelikan piston can easily have a tiny dot of silicone grease applied through the section end, on the end of a cocktail stick or something similarly small.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Quote Originally Posted by Sagebrush64 View Post
    After you fully disassemble and clean the piston, etc. don't forget to put a bit of silicone grease on the moving parts....
    NO!
    The Pelikan 120, 140, 400, M120/2XX/4XX/6XX are not made that the piston comes out of the body with ease. You should only take the piston out in extreme cases and then by someone with with experience because the risk of breaking something is high.

    If the piston is stiff, it can usually be cured by immersing the WHOLE pen in water and working the piston. This should eventually get rid of the dried ink that has collected at the back of the piston.

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    carlos.q (March 25th, 2019), ceebert (August 25th, 2019), Chrissy (March 25th, 2019)

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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Hi All,

    Thanks again for the advice. My only wish is to free the piston within the ink chamber. Soaking did the trick. The piston is moving freely and the ink chamber is clean. I did put a bit of silicon on the piston knob threads. I cannot remove the nib and do not want to at this time. The pen writes very well.

    Regards,
    N.K.

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    Senior Member whych's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Keep soaking the pen nib down in some water and the nib will come free in a few days. It needs lots of patience.
    If you are using the pen, you may very well find the ink has managed to do the same job as soaking in the next few days.
    The golden rule with piston fill pens is that you need to get some water into the piston chamber to free the piston and to soak the nib and section to free the nib.
    NEVER force it or you can mess up the piston/seal by getting the piston to turn or the nib to unscrew.

    Greasing the piston seal will make a difference, but Greasing the piston threads shouldn't make no difference.

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    Senior Member FredRydr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Pelikan M120 with immovable piston

    Quote Originally Posted by newkid View Post
    ...I did put a bit of silicon on the piston knob threads....
    It isn't quite clear from the posts so far, but you want the silicon grease between the inside surface of the barrel (the ink reservoir) and the outer edge of the piston, where the two come into contact. You do this as Chrissy mentioned. Unscrew the nib unit,* insert a toothpick (or similar) with a very small bit of silicon grease on the tip, and smear it around the inner circumference of the barrel. It is counterintuitive to put a lubricant inside the reservoir with the ink, but that is what is done to maintain a seal with smooth operation of the mechanism. (Cork pistons may use paraffin instead.) Remember, you don't want a blob of the stuff in the barrel, just a smear.

    Look to the Repair forum for sources for silicon grease.

    *(This assumes the M120 has the same threaded collared nib units as Pelikan's other models. I never owned an M120.)
    Last edited by FredRydr; March 25th, 2019 at 09:10 AM.

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