Sheaffer Balance Jr. Pressure Bar and sac

[Blooze]

Picked a Jr. up today and upon looking inside the pressure bar looked pretty bad. I pulled it (intact) and polished it with some Maas to remove the corrosion. My question is, how far up does this thing go to seat? I tried to keep a good reference of where it was, but I'm not sure it was in it's proper place to begin with as the lever was very floppy. So should the end of the lever hit on the raised hump on the bar, then stop at 90 degrees at the little "tab" on the right in the pictures? Also, does anyone have any reference to how the hook at the end should look? The thing just falls into the barrel which is something I've not seen when replacing Estie J-bars. Also, what size sac do the Jr.'s take? Really, any help I can get would be much appreciated as the pen is in pretty good shape otherwise.

[nemo]

You'll have to carefully retension the hook then it should push down all the way. The lever should not quite go to 90 degrees, but very close to perpendicular. A probe should go about 2.25 inches down from the open end to where it stops.

It is usually not necessary to pull J-bars out of Sheaffers unless there is a problem because they can get deformed as they come out as you found. They are pretty robust, I rarely find bad ones. Leave 'em be.

Sheaffer Jr takes a #16 sac. Good luck, enjoy your carmine Junior, it looks like about a '37 with decent plating remaining.

[Blooze]

Thanks Nemo. The bar was pretty corroded when it came out. In fact I was surprised it didn't come out in pieces. I'll try to spread that hook out a bit so there's some tension between it and the barrel. Right now it just falls down into the barrel, no "pushing" it in. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding you though

Will the lever ride between or over the hump and then stop against the little nib then?



I put the J-bar back in and it's centered pretty well with the lever, but there are no stops for it. I measured about 2 5/8" from the edge of the barrel opening to the curve of the bar with a small (1/8") rod. It's basically the same as it was before I pulled it now. I think the stop problem is the lever is most likely rounded on the end. You can kind of feel it hit the little nib that sticks up, but just barely. Ah well, it's back together and none the worse for wear I guess, just gotta hold onto the lever when filling and make sure it's pushed down good when done. Hopefully the sac will help push up a little on the bar and keep the lever in place better.

[nemo]

Will the lever ride between or over the hump and then stop against the little nib then?



I put the J-bar back in and it's centered pretty well with the lever, but there are no stops for it. I measured about 2 5/8" from the edge of the barrel opening to the curve of the bar with a small (1/8") rod. It's basically the same as it was before I pulled it now. I think the stop problem is the lever is most likely rounded on the end. You can kind of feel it hit the little nib that sticks up, but just barely. Ah well, it's back together and none the worse for wear I guess, just gotta hold onto the lever when filling and make sure it's pushed down good when done. Hopefully the sac will help push up a little on the bar and keep the lever in place better.

Good work Blooze! I'm sorry but my first measurement was incorrect (I bottomed out on something else) and it is 2 5/8", you are right. The lever comes down in between the two bumps and should stop on the smaller of the two. I just looked closely at two of mine and they do stop without the sac being present. Just be careful when filling not to go too far over center (more than 90 degrees) or it may get stuck.

It doesn't sound like the bar is pushing out on the lever enough still -- maybe a little more bending for tension. Glad you got it this close!

[Blooze]

I tried holding the bar up tight against the inside of the barrel and the lever still flops a bit, so I'm thinking it's most likely the lever at this point and not the bar.