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| Maintenance & Repairs » Correct Order for Reassembly for Smith Corona Sterling 5AX circa 1963 » 22-12-2025 06:17:52 |
- ArrowJ
- Replies: 1
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Reference Documentation
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Source: 1964 Smith Corona 5 & 6 Series Parts Catalog Affected Assembly: Main Keylever and Sublever Mechanism (Pages 338, 352)
Initial State
Components Installed:
#1 Keylevers (All)
Components Removed (To be installed later):
#2 Keylever Springs
#3 Keylever Spring Bar
#16 Type Rest (Page 352)
Components to be Installed in this Procedure:
#14 Sublever Segment Wire
#15 Sublever Links
#16 Sublevers
Procedure
Note: This workflow assumes a starting point on the right side of the machine (facing the keyboard). As installation progresses toward the left, workspace will become increasingly restricted.
1. Identification
Orientation: Machine resting on its side.
Apply a tactile marker (e.g., sticky tack) to the specific Keylever currently being assembled. This allows for identification by touch when reaching from the bottom of the chassis without visually verifying from the top.
2. Linkage Installation
Orientation: Machine resting on its side (viewing from bottom).
Using a small parts grabber, grasp a Sublever Link.
Hook the Sublever Link into the bottom of the two small holes on the target Keylever.
Technique: Position the grabber close to the connection point to stabilize the Sublever Link in preparation for the next step.
3. Sublever Staging
Orientation: Machine resting on its side (viewing from top).
Hook the Sublever onto the free end of the Sublever Link.
Slide the Sublever into the Sublever Segment until it is friction-fit or lightly seated in position.
4. Segment Wire Insertion
Orientation: Machine resting on its side (viewing from bottom).
WARNING: Exercise extreme caution when retracting the Sublever Segment Wire. Retract it only far enough to clear the new Sublever. Retracting the wire too far will
| Maintenance & Repairs » Smith Corona Sterling 5AX Circa 1963-1966 » 19-12-2025 05:11:00 |
- ArrowJ
- Replies: 2
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I appreciate your suggestion a lot. I have one more idea I am going to try which is basically using sticky tack to hold everything else in place after I disconnect the keylever and see if it give me enough clearance and movement to get them on. If it works, which I doubt, I will take pictures and share here for others. If not I will be visiting the music store
| Maintenance & Repairs » Smith Corona Sterling 5AX Circa 1963-1966 » 05-12-2025 08:41:52 |
- ArrowJ
- Replies: 2
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My first post was about finding a correct order of operations for putting this machine back together in the correct order after it has been disassembled further than it should have been. Not surprisingly, no one had that information. I have since installed all the keybars, typebars, and linkages except the Sublever Links. I have tried disconnecting the Keylever from the upper Key Link Fulcrum Rod, disconnecting the Keylever from the lower Key Link Fulcrum Rod, and removing the Sublever from first the Sublever Segment Wire and second from both the Sublever Segment Wire and the Typebar, but none of these gives me enough movement to install the Sublever Links. I have over forty of these things to get back on and I have no idea how to do it. It seem geometrically impossible. These Sublever Links appear to be made from spring steel and for that reason I cannot chance bending one end and then bending it back. They had to get these things on in the factory. Any ideas, guesses, experience would be helpful. I have included images of a Sublever Link and where it has to go. My part descriptions come from the 1964 Smith Corona 5 & 6 Series Part Catalog.
| Maintenance & Repairs » Correct Order for Reassembly for Smith Corona Sterling 5AX circa 1963 » 18-11-2025 07:00:00 |
- ArrowJ
- Replies: 1
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I have a very difficult problem with which I need some help. I will tell the entire story for context, but if you would rather skip that simply scroll to the PROBLEM label below.
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My Dad is in his 70's and has several health issues. As is the way of man, he is thinking about the past more. A few years ago his kidneys quit and he does all the treatments now. Soon after that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
He was talking about his childhood and brought up the typewriter his grandmother bought him as a young boy. She raised him and worked herself to death to do so. He wanted to use it one more time, but had stored it in a shed. It was in very bad shape. The rust was progressing aggressively. I told him I would sort it for him.
I brought it home and began trying to clean it with as little disassembly as possible. I soon realized that in the end if I wanted to remove the rust and slow the reaper, I would have to strip it down. I took images and worked on it a little each day.
Then my Dad decided he wanted to have every sermon he has preached since he was 18 (many of the first ones typed on that typewriter) digitized. I told him I would sort it when the typewriter was done. Over the next three months he kept bringing it up so that I would realize he preferred to have the sermons done first. This project took me a little over two years. Now I have a typewriter in a thousand pieces and not enough context left in my aging brain to figure out the proper sequence to put it back together. I have been labeling the parts according to the manuals available and watching as many videos as I can, but as most of you probably know. No one in their right mind would take it as far apart as I did.
PROBLEM:
I need an order of operations such that I do not put the cart before the horse and have to redo it over and over.
I can wrap my mind around the pieces and have them cleaned, and I am organizing them now. I have the information I could find online. I also have an exact duplic
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