Waterman Le Man 100 disassembly

November 19, 2023

I have a Waterman Le Man from (I think) the early 80's. I have searched this forum for guidance on disassembling the pen and have found some posts from 8-10 years ago. almost all of the links are dead and most of the images linked to are broken. I have found a good picture of a Le Man disassembled but not the process of disassembly. Is there anyone here who has a resource that will give some insight on breaking down the nib unit. I am worried about breaking the aged plastic parts of the feed section.

Background: The pen was part of my first used pen purchase which occurred at a pen show. It came as a part of a 2 pen deal and being my first foray into the used market I made the mistake of not inspecting either pen adequately. I was lucky with one but the Le Man - not so much. It appears that a previous owner had eyedroppered the pen. As a result the interior of the brass body was severely corroded. I was able to get a cartridge into the pen with some effort and it wrote fine but I could not get a convertor to make a seal. I have cleaned 90% of the corrosion using multiple applications of ketchup. After doing some research I choose ketchup because I thought it would not react with the gold trim or plastic parts of the feed.

After removing the corrosion around the feed I was able to install the convertor. I filled it up with some ink and all was good for about a week. After a week I started to see ink in the cap. Not a lot but enough to make a mess. I think the ink is leaking from the seem at the gold band at the base of the nib. My thinking is that the plastic section is cracked and needs to be replaced or maybe the unit just needs to be broken down and cleaned really well and reassembled. Either way I wont know until I take it apart.

Here is a link to images of the pen showing the ink: Image Gallery

Any help finding resources on a Le Man 100 is appreciated.