Shaeffer Triumph repair for amateurs

[sirksael]

I recently repaired a shaeffer triumph with my limited skills and tools, and I took some pictures along the way so I thought I'd share...

 

This is the pen in question:

 

The first thing you need to do is get the blind cap off. In this version, it is held in place with a metal ring screwed in to the cap. While people recommend grinding a cheap screwdriver into a 'fork', or sharpening an actual 'fork', for me a sharp knife to hold the rind whilst turning the blind cap worked nicely:

 

 

The little contraption at the end of the plunger shaft, marked in the next picture, screws off clockwise. I held the shaft with an old T-shirt around it and pliers without teeth, and the thinghy with pliers with rubber fuel tubing wrapped around them.

 

 

Secondly we need to remove the nib and feed from the section. On this version, the nib goes all the way around the feed and is probably shallaced on. The feed itself is sealed into the section with shaeffer's special thread sealant that goes soft at a lower temperature than shellac. Using my usual au-bain-marie setup for heating pens, I heated the nib and section for 20 minutes at 60-70 degrees Celsius:

 

 

I am lucky in that I have a cooking plate that allows me to set temperature, but a thermometer should do just as well. After these 20 minutes, I could unscrew the nib and feed using just my hands.

 

 

On my pen, the barrel wasn't sealed on to the "cartridge" type section, so I could take it off just like on a cartridge type modern pen. There is no reason for the barrel to be sealed to the section anyway, as the "cartridge" contains the ink. Now that the feed/nib is off, it is easy to take the plunger out.

 

 

This leaves you with the "cartridge' type section:

 

If you look carefully (Thanks to Ron Zorn for patiently explaining this to me), you will see that there is a washer solvent-welded on to the top of the "cartridge'. Using a sharp hobby knife, you can carefully loosen it in one piece:

 

Now you can take the old packing out of the "cartridge" using a toothpick or alike. Here you can see the old packing with felt in between that I found in mine:

Note: There was one more rubber washer in there that is not in the picture, I only discovered it later.

 

I replaced the gasket on the plunger with a gaskets I acquired from Ron Zorn. (no affiliation, just a happy customer). the gasket is held in place by a washer that screws on to the plunger shaft, which I did with the same combination of pliers and T-shirt as before:

 

You can see here that the old washer, compared to the sac of new washers I acquired, was really worn:

 

Don't forget to put some silicone grease on, I acquired mine in a R/C hobby store, only use 100% silicone:

 

Putting the plunger shaft back in can be a bit of a challenge, I solved this by attaching needle to it using some thin thread so that I could easily put it through the hole at the top. You can then just pull the needle and the thread out afterwards:

 

 

The packing at the top of the "cartridge" can be replaced with a new packing, I got mine from David Nishimura's website (no affiliation, just a happy customer). You need just the Packing gaskets for plunger-fillers for this model, not the closure washers, unless you access the packing at the top of the "cartridge" by drilling it out of course.

 

Put the packing in, don't forget to add some silicone grease in there to keep things supple:

 

I then solvent-welded the washer back on using some PVC glue with a toothpick, works like a charm.

 

for sealing the nib/feed back in the section, you are best off using nib sealant. I got Ron Zorn's version, which is made according to Shaeffer's old formula. Put some on a toothpick, heat it (I just used a lighter, but not directly in the flame) and apply on the feed threads along the top, as marked in the next picture:

 

Just the top is enough, it will spread when you screw it in, but make sure the sealant goes all around.

 

The reason you want to do this with sealant rather than shellac, glue or whatever, is that the nib is sealed on to the feed with shellac. If you would seal the feed in with anything that doesn't become soft at quite such a low temperature as the thread sealant, you would have to heat the pen up so far that you would loosen the nib from the feed next time you try to open it.

 

Screw the nib/feed back in, I tightened it firmly but still only using my hands:

 

All that is left is re-assembling the blind cap, put some silicone grease on the plunger shaft, and you're done!

 

 

Edited May 6, 2009 by sirksael

[Breck]

Wow. Well done. As a very amateur restorer (5 pens, no *complete* disasters yet), let me congratulate you on your bravery for attempting this project with improvised tools!

 

Now I want to try!

[fountainbel]

Sincere congratulations to my fellow country man, well done !

It looks you were very lucky getting the nib unit out so easily.

This is rather exceptional in my experience, surely when heating the section "au bain marie".

Doing so one softens not anly the sealant of the nib assembly threadfit, but one also heats up the nib screw fit sealant

Result being that mostly the nib alone screws off, while the transparent plastic nib seat bushing remains in the section.

Getting this bushing out then is a delicate operation !

Francis

[eckiethump]

Well done, you've just brought back to live a similiar pen I have, and had never considered removing the back packing and seal in the method shown. Finding the cartridge types a good bit more effort to restore than the pens which hold the ink in the barrel. These pens I also find more susceptible to damage through the heating that is required, if not applied ultra carefully.

Nice photo's and a very clean pen, well explained, picture says a thousand words etc....

 

Eric

[mzoeller]

Thanks so much sirksael for posting the steps you used and the wonderful photos on the journey to repairing this pen. I am trying to get the very same pen apart and being able to see the "inards" is priceless. I was about to give up, but maybe I'll keep trying.