TypewriterGuy wrote:

Yes, it sounds like grease in the mainspring.

???  I think she's complaining about a sluggish line space lever, not the action of the drawband drum...

I always use Varsol (mineral spirits) to clean the pivots of a line space lever and it's always worked. If you don't want to disassemble it, just keep working the lever while working a cotton swab that is soaked in mineral spirits around all of its associated pivots and linkages; it will be moving freely soon enough.
 

It is the line space lever.  Sorry for the confusion, Typewriter Guy.  One of the other issues about this typewriter is that the bell isn't very loud.  But I took off the back of the machine and it seems to just not be very loud.  There is nothing present to muffle the sound.  Oh well.

Uwe wrote:

colrehogan wrote:

There is nothing present to muffle the sound. Oh well.

I just checked the bell on my HH, and it's fairly loud - well, it makes a nice sharp "ding". Quiet bells are sometimes/often caused by a sluggish hammer; given your line space lever is fouled up, it wouldn't surprise me that your bell hammer action is too. If you clean the hammer pivot and associated linkages that trip it to make sure that everything moves very freely, it might help to increase the bell's volume. The harder (faster) a hammer hits, the more sound it will produce.
 

Seconded.  My KMM didn't ding at all.  And so I was worried that there was something more seriously wrong.  But a thorough cleaning of just the linkages and the right margin adjuster mechanism solved it.  I wouldn't say it's super loud, but there's a sharp ding now.

The two side panels just pop off by pressing on them from the inside of the machine. The large back panel is held in place by a couple of screws. Removable, and makes it far easier to get at things for cleaning.