If a Touchdown, TipDip or Snorkel pen isn't filling properly, and the sac is still intact, then the seals are compromised.  While not the easiest thing in the world to replace, it's far from the most difficult.

First, unscrew the blind cap and section.  Take the section out and set it aside.  To check the barrel seal, put the open end of the barrel in your mouth and blow gently.  At the top and bottom of the tube's travel, there is supposed to be a little hissing leak of air-- it there's not, you'll need to take a pin and clear the nigh-invisibly small hole near the blind cap.  With the tube anywhere else in its travel there should be absolutely no leakage whatsoever.  If there is, proceed.

You will now need a flat-blade screwdriver  long and narrow enough to reach through to the end of the blind cap (you can, of course, push the tube back-- it doesn't need to be that long a driver).  There is a small screw which holds on the blind cap, and once it's undone you can get the tube out of the barrel.  Be very cautious not to lose this screw.  Or any other parts, really.


With the tube out, you can just make out an o-ring  on the inner wall of the barrel, if you've got very good light.  This needs to come out without damage being done to the barrel.  I have used mainly wooden cuticle tools for the job, occasionally and very carefully employing a pin where nothing else serves.

You then need a new o-ring (best got from one of the specialist suppliers in my links page, as I have no idea if the correct diameter ring can be had at, say, a plumbing shop).  Getting this seated is the tricky part of the exercise-- some suggest that a wooden dowel can be used to keep the ring from sliding down too far past the groove it should rest in, but I find gentle and patient poking with the cuticle tools wins the day, if one remembers that the tool can come up the barrel as well as through the end-cap.

Once the ring is set, replace the tube into the barrel.  Have a look inside the blind cap-- there should be a little black gasket in there.


If it's not, we've got a problem.  It's not really possible to get a new one, so use a dollop of pen-specific sealant, fabricate one with a piece of ink-sac (both available from suppliers in the links) or in desperation apply a quick blob of rubber cement atop the tube.  If you do this, keep it small and you won't have to wrestle with removing boogers from the cap/tube interface.  Reattach the blind cap to the tube, and leave the tube open while the cement dries.  I'm not a huge fan of this, but it seems that the solvents in the rubber cement don't really affect the pen's plastic.

Once everything is together, give the tube a bit of silicon grease to keep the o-ring in top shape.  Pure silicon grease can be had at dive shops and from pen-repair suppliers.  If anyone knows other sources, I'll happily spread the news, although it's not particularly expensive. Update:  a third grade teacher in Indiana, who has apparently managed to refit some pens with the ...help?  of these directions, writes that he has found appropriate material in the plumbing section of Lowe's-- silicon grease which proclaims its freedom from petroleum products of any sort.  I speculate that it's thus likely available in other plumbing contexts.

At this point, if you've got a Touchdown, you're done.  Put the section back in place, and work the tube a couple of times.  There should be little huffs out of the tiny hole mentioned earlier, and there might even be a wee spurt of the grease on the first stroke or two.  Try filling the pen with water, and if its working properly, cycling the action without the point submerged will make it spray lustily.  Chalk it up as a victory.

A snorkel has one more seal, and it's hiding.  Before tracking it down, pretend everything is fixed-- put the pen back together and test it as above.  Squirting equals joy.  No squirting means taking the section off again.  Set aside the barrel, draw the snorkel and protector from the section, and then...


...unscrew the upper and lower parts of the section.  Cunning, eh?  This seal stops leaks around the snorkel itself, and as with the barrel seal the only way I know to be sure you've got a part that fits is to get one from a pen-parts supplier.

The best way I've found to install one is to insert the protector in the lower section, (don't worry about alignment too much-- you can fiddle with it later), then push the seal down over the snorkel.  Slip the upper section onto it, then screw it down to seat the seal.  Check that the snorkel is in right-way up, then extend it fully, unscrew the upper section again, and apply the merest skim of silicon grease to the snorkel tube close to the seal-- it tends to bind in the seal, and not extend properly, without this lubrication.  Reattach the upper section, put the pen back together, test-fill, and squirt away.

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