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21-11-2018 07:52:31  #1


Ball Bearings!

I know this is going to sound really bad, but yesterday I was messing around with the carriage and two ball bearings fell out. After doing some research, I found that most typewriters have four, but only two fell out, and I don't believe any fell into the typewriter itself. I've managed to put the two bearing back in place, one on each rail, but it doesn't seem to be working the same. What do I do? 

Royal Model O, 1936

 

21-11-2018 09:19:02  #2


Re: Ball Bearings!

Your typewriter should have four bearings; I have the same model that's a 1935, and it has four.  This might sound strange, but a friend gave me their machine to work on to see why the carriage wasn't moving as smoothly as it should.  As I was checking the adjustment on the carriage rails, I discovered that there were only two bearings.  Not much to do, since I don't have any extra.  In your case, check carefully for the other two--if you don't find them, you will need a trip to the repair shop, and hope they have some extra.  If you want to do it yourself, then the bearings are 1/4", and I have heard they are compatible with bearings from a Smith Corona portable from the same period.  You might check Ebay for parts.  After that, on the Typewriter Database there are service manuals detailing how to install bearings into the carriage.  It's tricky, because they have to be placed in the exact position.  Good luck; your Royal is a good machine.


Nothing valuable was ever lost by taking time.  A. Lincoln
 

21-11-2018 11:48:03  #3


Re: Ball Bearings!

If you don't have ready access to a repair shop or a Smith-Corona portable (and 1/4 inch balls sounds very big for carriage rails anyway) you can try a bicycle shop; they have lots of ball bearings rolling around their parts drawers. Take one of your remaining ones as a sample to get the size right and you might consider getting all four from the bike shop to insure that they will be the same size as each other. 

The other big consideration will be getting the timing star wheels (or whatever your machine uses to keep the balls in the correct places) into position. Sometimes the positioning gears are one-on-each-ball and in other designs they are long bars that hold both balls in each rail. If you have not noticed that yours have fallen out then maybe they are the one-piece design and still in the rails. Or you have lost them.

It's a tricky fix.

 

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