The Aurora 88 has quickly become one of my favorite pens, both the modern and vintage designs. After using a friend’s vintage 88 and experiencing its’ wonderful flex I added several to my collection and began to repair and sell several others. Here I’ll present the pen in its various pieces and what you should look out for should you try to take one apart.
One of the few reasons to remove a feed is if a pen has poor or inconsistent flow. I rarely experience flow problems with these pens and this was actually the first time I needed to remove the feed. If the feed must be removed it can be pushed out the front of the section. The feed is not keyed to the section in any way so you must keep it from rotating off center when inserting it back into the section. Once the feed is pushed into the section by hand there is a ledge molded into the feed where a slotted screw driver can be used to push the feed the rest of the way into the section (shown by the next two pictures). The nib should easily slide onto the feed once the feed is securely in the section. Thankfully, the nib can’t be rotated off center like on the Parker “51″.
The piston unit (above) consists of the piston shaft, piston seal, and the nut that holds the seal on the shaft. The hexagonal shape of the shaft slides inside a hexagonal cylinder in the barrel to prevent the piston from rotating during a filling cycle. The inside of the piston shaft is threaded to mate with the piston screw (shown below). The piston screw remains stationary while rotated which causes the piston shaft to move inside the barrel. If the pen has poor suction the seal will need to be replaced. I like to use “c” sized piston seals from VintagePens.com. Make sure you lightly apply some silicone lube to the seals to keep them from squeaking inside the barrel.
The picture above shows the piston screw and is somewhat inaccurate in that there’s no way to remove the piston screw with the aluminum collar still attached. The pin holding the collar onto the piston screw must be knocked out and then the collar can be removed and the piston screw can be pushed out of the other end of the barrel.
Finally, the piston knob slides over the collar and is keyed to piston screw. The piston knob is secured to the piston screw by a small slotted screw with a spring on it. Most 88s will have a small plastic insert in the piston knob that covers the screw which requires an exacto knife to remove.
Wonderful!! Thank you for sharing this.
Good work.
I like this design since the end cap or filler knob does not change position during the refilling cycle. The only issue I have is this, what keeps the nib in place in the X direction. I understand that it does not rotate but if it is slid into position and held fixed, this must mean that it is held into position by means of an interference fit, also known as pressure fit.
If indeed it is a pressure fit, this requires the manufacturing tolerances to be more exact then necessary for the equipment and materials of that era. Remember this is a tricky or challenging process because of the shrinkage of those synthetic materials, i.e.; hard rubber feed and plastic hood or section. Of course, this method is more cost effective.
However, they did something right for these pens to last decades with superior performance. Also, the nib-feed-hood design allowed them to have a relatively, very small nib minimizing the expensive gold content.
Nice pictures and explanation.
Cheers,
Frank
Ahoy Danny!
THANK YOU so very much for this great pictorial tear-down of one of my favorite vintage pens. I’ve often searched for just this information and I’ve always come up empty-handed. You’ve done a great service to all vintage A88 owners.
The only problem I see is that having read your article, I’m now itching to take my pen apart!
=) Eric