Fountain pen question?

I just purchased (and received) a new fountain pen from an ebay seller. There's an unattached spring in the reservoir. I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong there, at least floating around as it is. Here's a link to a photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/30488860@N04/5766940116/in/photostream

Anyone know how and/or where to attach it? I hate to write to the seller as the pen came from China and the instructions are barely intelligible. I'll do that if I have to, but I feel it unlikely that the seller will be able to communicate with me.

Thanks for any help!

2011-05-27T22:00:19Z

Here's another photo focusing in more closely on the reservoir:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30488860@N04/5766685529/in/photostream

Although the spring is close to one end in the photo, it's not attached to anything. It's just loose in there. Thanks!

?2011-05-27T21:43:00Z

Favorite Answer

hard to say from the pic, but some fountain pens I've owned have had a sort of stopper, to push the ink down in the reservoir, or to keep it from sloshing around as the level lowers. I suspect that that's what this is. Try it with the spring in, and see if it works. If it doesn't, you can always remove it.

Vince M2011-05-28T10:31:36Z

I can see the threads in the nib half of the pen, but it is not clear where the matching threads are in the pen's body. I mention this because it appears that the clear part of the resevoir is meant to be covered up when it is assembled.

Could it be that there is some device in the nib half that ENTERS the resevoir and then, somehow, connects the spring to it's function?