Well, is there anything unusual about that tooth? There are ten teeth on the escapement star wheel, right? Mark that tooth with paint or something. When the backspacing works, you just happen to be using it where good teeth are positioned, and then it spaces until it gets to that tooth, right? Is that tooth bent or chipped?

It's possible for there to be something wrong with the dogs that catch the teeth, so check them carefully, too. It's just that if ithe prob is *always* on *that* tooth, that's probably the culprit.

The odd thing is that the carriage *always* slides left when you use the return lever. Does it only do that when you Return from the very end at the right margin? Does it sometimes catch when you use the Return from a caught position midline?

M. Höhne wrote:

Well, is there anything unusual about that tooth? There are ten teeth on the escapement star wheel, right? Mark that tooth with paint or something. When the backspacing works, you just happen to be using it where good teeth are positioned, and then it spaces until it gets to that tooth, right? Is that tooth bent or chipped?

It's possible for there to be something wrong with the dogs that catch the teeth, so check them carefully, too. It's just that if ithe prob is *always* on *that* tooth, that's probably the culprit.

I marked the culprit tooth and it is the one that always fails. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the tooth itself, its almost like the thing that pulls the teeth or the one that holds them in place (the dog?) cannot keep up.

As for if it always slides, if I have it at the mid line having pushed the backspace I can push the lever and release it with it staying in place. This is true to a point, if I push the carriage too far then it loses the catch and just becomes free sliding again.

Thanks for the help
 

Try also looking above the escapement mechanism at the upper gear meets the rack frame (the one on the carriage that is pulled back when you release the carriage to move it to a different place on the writing line).  It well could be that the rack frame may be bent just enough to not mesh with the top escapement gear, or the whole rack frame may not mesh tightly enough with this gear.  There are two adjustments on either side where the carriage releases are.  You'll have to bend them, and watch how the rack frame contacts the escapement gear on either side.  It'll be trial and error, but you'll want to get it to where it has contact, but not too tight a contact to where it makes a grinding sound everytime you return the carriage.

TypewriterKing wrote:

Try also looking above the escapement mechanism at the upper gear meets the rack frame (the one on the carriage that is pulled back when you release the carriage to move it to a different place on the writing line).  It well could be that the rack frame may be bent just enough to not mesh with the top escapement gear, or the whole rack frame may not mesh tightly enough with this gear.  There are two adjustments on either side where the carriage releases are.  You'll have to bend them, and watch how the rack frame contacts the escapement gear on either side.  It'll be trial and error, but you'll want to get it to where it has contact, but not too tight a contact to where it makes a grinding sound everytime you return the carriage.

I did my best to find this but I'm not sure what that specifically looks like. There isn't any visible moving gear while I slide the carriage about. Do I perhaps need to take the plastics off?

treefaller wrote:

The feed rack and pinion gear may not be meshing very well. Sometimes gunk in the feed rack pivots can keep them from returning completely. Not sure how the backspace would fix that, though. But it's worth working the feed rack release handle and oiling the pivot points with gun oil to see if that helps.

Does this gear attach directly to the carriage?