Koken Barber Chair Repair

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is there not a ratchet/pawl stop? You raise the chair, set the stop and the chair sits there. When you want to drop it, you have to pump again to take the tension off the ratchet and allow it to descend?

I seem to recall that was the way the one I sat in 1955 worked.?

No ratchet/ pawl stop that I'm aware of. To lock this style chair from turning you pull back on the hand lever which pulls up the plunger and forces a lock block against the outer cylinder. At least thats the way it works when there is a lock block between the plunger and the outer wall of the cylinder. As far as any lock for the raising and lowering there is none, the hand lever is pumped forward to raise it and pushed all the way forward to lower it. The lever rests in a neutral upright position when not being pumped and the chair should stay in its current height until manually altered. I have an original Koken schematic of the hydraulic mechanism in my chair, just not sure how to attach it in this forum.

I'm guessing there is a spring loaded ball set into a 'seat'. The 'seat' is probably dirty or corroded.

The 'seat' is usually just a drill hole. Easy to understand hard to clean/recut so that it is smooth with no lumps. An old trick is to put the ball into the hole and using a punch give it a smack with a hammer.

worked on some old pumps that to lower the lever engaged a small pin that was forced in to push the check ball holding the pressure of its seat. The length of the small rod was critical. Over years of wear the seat may have let the ball come in contact with rod enough that its holding slightly open. To adjust just shorten the rod.

I have recently dismantled the hyd mechanism on a Koken Barber chair which sounds a lot like yours. The chair lift cylinder has a lightly spring loaded cone shaped valve on the bottom. That is opened when the piston (pump) is moved to the lowest position by throwing handle completely forward. Oil below the main (chair) part of the cylinder is held by this valve and machined fit of the chair cylinder into the base portion of the unit. The only way the chair can go down is for oil to be seeping past the machined fit of the cylinder or through the cone valve which releases to lower the chair. My cone valve appears to be leather and may not be able to hold once I get some other repair work done then re-assemble. Hope this helps.

I'm working on my 2nd restoration. This one has seems to not have any braking ability. Will be removing the pump assembly to inspect it. Would you be willing to scan & email the Koken schematic? If so, please send to <email removed> Attn: George. This could be very helpful. Thanks.

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Hello, i bought a Koken with out knowing how complicated to fix the mechanism to lift is...so far it doesnt lift or swivel at all, could you please share with me the hydraulic mechanism scheme? How did you find it?

Thanks

I came accross a very interesting website with more info on this product: http://www.medicalexpo.com/medical-manufacturer/hydraulic-chair-6849.html