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I recently received a Royal portable 1940's I dont know much about typewriters but the spacebar and the backspace do not work, the carriage moves, and has a mainspring?? but on another typewriter I have that spring is covered with some fabric strap, which the portable does'nt have. What is this piece of fabric? Could it's absence be causing the backspace, and spacebar to not move the carriage? Thanks for any help
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Pictures! What do you mean when you say that the carriage moves? When you press a key it moves, or when you push it with the line space lever or use the carriage release? The drawband can be made of many different materials, so not all use a cloth drawband. However, you should see something wrapped around the drawband drum. The "mainspring" is not something you can see unless you disassemble the drawband drum - which is something that you should do with extreme caution.
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The carriage moves only when I press the release button, I didnt even think of the keys! I see a string this must be the drawband then, not the mainspring. I would upload photos , but Im not sure how to on here. This string is hooked to something but on the opposite side there is another hook right next to the serial number, that has nothing hooked onto it. Oh, and there was a notecard in the typewriter saying it needs a new tape? Thanks for responding
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$_1.JPG?set_id=8800005007F[/img][img] $_1.JPG?set_id=8800005007F[/img]Offline
Based on your photos it looks like the drawband is okay. If the spacebar and back space keys don't work it's most likely none of the other keys will advance the carriage either. When you press on the back space key does it only move down a little before stopping? I suspect the problem is a seized escapement (when you use the carriage release lever it by-passes the escapement and allows the carriage to move independent of it).
A seized escapement is not uncommon for a machine that has not been used in a very long time and typically it just needs to be thoroughly cleaned and oiled. However, getting to it can be another matter. Often the only way is to remove the carriage, but sometimes it is possible to work on it from the underside of the machine.
It's possible that the problem could be something else but a combination of the backspace and spacebar not working makes is less likely that the issue is anything else.
The question now is how comfortable are you with working on mechanical equipment?
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I'm new to it ,but would prefer to do these things on my own, anyways my area doesnt have a repair shop. Thanks for the advice, I will give it a try. I picked up a repair manual from the library and I'll let you know how it goes. One more thing..[img]
$_57.JPG?rt=nc[/img] I found this picture on ebay of a similar looking model and that hook appears to have a spring or something attached to it..do you know what that is?Offline
Oh, and to answer youre question it doesnt move at all (the carriage).
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AB117 wrote:
I found this picture on ebay of a similar looking model and that hook appears to have a spring or something attached to it..do you know what that is?
Which hook and spring? I'm not sure what you're referring to in that photo.
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Sorry about that, In the second photo (my typewriter) there is a hook with nothing attached to it, upper right hand corner. In the third photo (not my typewriter, but same model) there is that same hook with something attached to it ,upper left hand corner. Thanks, again for all youre help.
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There's nothing attached to it on any of my machines from the same era. And looking at that photo of the machine that isn't yours, I'm not sure anything is attached to it either. The purpose of the hook could be to hold the drawband when you need to remove the carriage so the tension on the drawband drum isn't lost.
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