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Happy New Year Everyone,
I have an Underwood Universal from 1948 (if I read the serial number list correctly) with a carriage that will not advance. My original guess was an issue with the mainspring or drawband, but backspace works perfectly and both mechanisms appear to be in working order. Would the issue seem to be the escapement now? If so, does anybody know how I would go about diagnosing and repairing this?
Thanks in advance
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Can you move the carriage back and forth - and is there tension on it - when you use the carriage release? You say it doesn't advance, is that when using any of the keys? What about the spacebar?
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The carriage does not advance by pressing any of the keys or the space bar. I am able to move the carriage back and forth using the carriage release. Yes, there is tension on the carriage.
Thanks for the reply.
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Then I'd look over the escapement. Did you just buy this machine? Or has it been sitting around for many years in storage? The backspace key works independently of the carriage advance mechanism activated by the the keys.
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I received this machine as a gift recently, so I'm unsure of how it was stored previously. I'll do my best to take a look at the escapement, but I'm somewhat hesitant to remove the carriage as it seems more difficult than what I've read of other Underwoods (e.g. even after releasing the margin stops, the carriage is still blocked from removal by the type guide). Any suggestions on that would be appreciated as well.
Thanks again!