Hi guys,
I got this wonderful 1935 Torpedo #6 yesterday. Overall, everything is working well, not too much dust and dirt - except the area below the carriage with a considerable layer of quite solid greasy gunk.


Only the ribbon vibrator is not working properly. I'll try to explain.

When the colour switch lever is in position "white", the vibrator can be lifted quite easily, but it does not always go back to its original position. However, when moving it up and down manually, there is not much resistance.

Switching to black will only work if the vibrator is not in its lowest position possible, but a little bit lifted. Otherwise, the lever will only go halfway, and then block. Switching the lever to red always works, only that when the vibrator is at its very bottom, the vibrator will not come into action at all, but needs a little lifting first. Once the vibrator is not in its lowest position, quick switching from red to black and back does work, omitting the white position.

Luckily, on this machine the carriage can be taken off easily, there are two levers on the left and right. (Awesome blade-like solid metal drawband. Don't want to be around when this comes off and is drawn back onto the drum with momentum ...) Like this, I can more or less see the entire mechanism, and brush spirits over it, but I think I couldn't really reach it with tools. Only the part that is behind the plate that holds the decimal tab key linkage (bottom image #3) is hard to get at. I guess I would need to take off the body back plate, which seems a bit complicated as the tab mechanism is on top of it and thus would need to be removed, too.


Now, when typing, red and black alike, the vibrator will go up, but never back down again. It can be moved manually, but there it doesnt feel like the spring is involved. I move it, and it stays where I stop moving it, middle, top, bottom, whatever. I followed the linkage from the vertical bar that transmits the power from the type bars through to the vibrator. Everything seems to be in place, everything does work and move. I suppose that mechanism should move very, very easily, the position of the vibrator determined by the vertical bar, which due to the spring tension always should jump back after a key has been hit and released again. 

I cleaned the whole linkage as good as I could with methylated spririt, no change, only the linkage of the color selector moving a bit more easily than before. Actually, I fear I see a tiny spot of rust at the position (sort of bearing) where the rod that retracts the vertical bar is held in order to enable its turning. That is just on the right of the left-hand stem that connects the bar to the rod.

I also fear that there is another spring missing somewhere along the mechanism. The one on the rod that should push back the bar is the only one I can see here, and it is in its original place and has tension. Or should I try more spirit-washing?

I would appreciate so much if any of you had an idea how to proceed. It would be such a shame for that machine if I couldn't get it back into full action.
Many thanks!