1 - JJH
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Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
Hello,
A couple of days ago I received this lovely yellow Adler Tippa S, which somebody had found in their attic, presumably left there by the previous owner of the house (here with a few screws already removed). Unlike the Triumph Tippa I acquired before this, this has a tab function and a segment shift, so this would be a more desirable machine for doing typing outside of home.
While I'm not sure if there are any active people here who can answer my questions, I'll give it a go anyway. I guess Reddit is another place to try, but I'm more used to these "old-school" discussion boards, so I will try here first.
Besides a sticky Ö-key, the only major fault I've found so far is that it does not like to feed the paper properly, and this naturally also affects the line change, which works sometimes, but most often not. Rotating the platen also makes an unpleasant screeching sound; same problem I have with the Triumph Tippa.
I'm guessing this means that the feed rollers have gone bad and probably need replacements from J. J. Short, along with the platen, which probably has seen better days as well.
I might be willing to go that far to get this machine restored, but that means I have to learn how to take off the carriage, the platen and the feed rollers etc.
First things first: am I correct in my initial assessment, that taking off the carriage is as simple as just removing these two black screws? This might be a silly question, but I'm so new to these machines that I don't want to take anything for granted here.
I also fished out this tiny part from below the carriage; hopefully I will find out where it belongs.
If anyone has questions about their own Tippa S, feel free to to use this topic.
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
JJH wrote:
Rotating the platen also makes an unpleasant screeching sound; same problem I have with the Triumph Tippa.
I'm guessing this means that the feed rollers have gone bad and probably need replacements from J. J. Short, along with the platen, which probably has seen better days as well.
Sending the platen and feed rollers to J. J. Short isn't the first thing I would do. Tippa's can have hard platens, but I have never seen flattened feed rollers. I don't say that it can't be the case with your machine, but I find it unlikely.
I would suggest to unscrew the platen knobs and check the shafts for hardened lubricants. If that isn't the case you can investigate the matter further by removing the platen check the feed rollers and other parts.
I have had a Tippa that had paper feed issues because an address label had attached itself to one feed roller and the paper tray. Another Tippa had issues with the platen rotation because of hardened grease.
Hope this helps,
Lau
- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
By the way, you don't need to take off the carriage to remove the platen and/or feed rollers. Just unscrew the platen knobs, move the carriage as far as possible to the left, engage the platen release, engage the paper release and lift out the platen. The feed rollers are mounted in the paper tray below the platen, which is a loose part that can be lifted out of the carriage once the platen had been removed.
- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
Interesting, thank you for the advice! I do wish I could fix the issue without J. J. Short, as it would probably be rather expensive, especially from Europe. I will try to follow your instructions and report back. I would still like to try removing the carriage for cleaning purposes though.
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Thread Starter- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
I tested this on my Tippa 1 with a faulty carriage (I have a Triumph Tippa and a Tippa 1), and was able to remove the platen and the rollers very nicely. Even fixed the screechy sound it made when rotating the platen by applying a tiny bit of gun oil with a q-tip on the ends of the feed rollers, some of which were making the sound as they rotated.
With the Tippa S though my current problem is that the left side knob seems to be stuck really hard. The right one came off easy enough, but I'm struggling to find a way to keep the platen still without applying too much pressure on it while at the same time getting a good enough grip on the small plastic knob to force it open. I assume the left side knob is not reverse threaded on the TIppa S for some reason.
At least I was already able to figure out that a hard platen or flattened feed rollers are most probably not the problem here. Hopefully I can get the knob removed after I come back from work, preferably without breaking the thing. I'm also a bit worried that the big plastic card guide might be on the way when removing the platen, but let's see if I can actually unscrew that stuck left side platen knob first...
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Thread Starter- Laurenz van Gaalen
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
The right one came off easy enough, but I'm struggling to find a way to keep the platen still without applying too much pressure on it while at the same time getting a good enough grip on the small plastic knob to force it open.
Try to use a towel to get more grip on the platen. It that does't work you use a water pump pliers in stead of your hand. Be gentle and use as much as towel as possible in order to protect the platen.
I assume the left side knob is not reverse threaded on the TIppa S for some reason.
Yes, you are right, both knobs have normal threads.
- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
No luck, it really is stuck tight. Guess I really might need to take the Adler to a friend's place tomorrow and ask to borrow his pair of water pump pliers (thanks for the tip). Meanwhile I'll just remove the platen from the working but very dirty Triumph Tippa and concentrate on cleaning that one instead.
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Thread Starter- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
I am happy to report that at my friend's place we were finally able to unscrew the stubborn platen knob.
Back at home I was finally able to remove the platen and the paper tray. Although worried that I might break the clear plastic card guide, it was flexible enough for me to squeeze the platen past it. I did not try to remove it as it seems to be attached in a rather complex manner, especially when compared to the card guide on my 3rd gen Hermes 3000, for example. The regular Adler/Triumph Tippa and Tippa 1 don't have this plastic card guide, so removing the platen was quite a bit easier and less stressful on those models.
After removing the platen I could see there were no address labels or anything big like that stuck in there, but it had accumulated quite a bit of general dirt. After cleaning it feeds the paper without problems, so thank you for the help, Laurenz!
I did not discover yet where that loose E-clip I found belongs to, but the machine seems to type and otherwise work as it should now, except that the carriage sometimes makes this loud sound when doing a line change or otherwise moving it:
(the Insert Youtube video -button does not seem to recognize Youtube Shorts, so I just had to share the link to the 3 second video).
I'm guessing that sound is not ideal. Is there a simple way to fix it?
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Thread Starter- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
The machine is now sitting on my table with it's plastic case removed, but I'm not quite sure how to remove the black plastic bottom plate. In the regular Tippa removing the bottom was very simple, but with this one it isn't as obvious.
Following instructions I found on an old Reddit post, I removed two small nuts in the carriage area which were holding the plate from the back.
It then says that after removing these nuts "the mechanism can be pushed forward and then lifted straight up."
I can see that the bottom plate is no longer attached at the back, and tried pulling the machine towards the front, but it seems to be stuck pretty tight from the front. I don't want to use too much force before being absolutely certain that this information is correct, and that there is nothing else besides the two nuts that I have to remove before trying to push it too hard in any direction.
Any tips would be appreciated.
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Thread Starter- JJH
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Re: Mid-1970s Adler Tippa S maintenance questions
Oh well, it was quite a simple thing in the end. I just had to lift up the back and then give it a push towards the front. Time to get out the mineral spirits and cotton swabs.
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Thread Starter