1 of 1- runr53
- New Member
Offline 
- From: Connecticut
- Registered: 08-12-2013
- Posts: 1
Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
I have a nice SM9 that works perfectly except the tab function doesn't have the tension to move the carriage without help. I compared it to my working SM9s and I don't see any missing or malfunctioning parts. Is there a way to adjust the spring drum for more tension?
JLGentry
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
I haven't come across a typewriter yet that I couldn't adjust its drawband tension. I just had a look at an SM7 - it was handy - and on the keyboard side of the drum there's a multi-toothed disc that I suspect was designed to accept a special tool from Olympia that would adjust the tension.
However, just before I clicked on the Submit button I decided to look at an SM9 to be safe. Sure enough, the drum was changed for a simpler, less expensive component to manufacture. In place of that adjustment wheel on the SM7 there's now just a nut and bolt.
Probably the easiest way to add tension would be to wrap the drawband around the drum one more time, which means you need to prevent the drum from spinning, slide the carriage back to give you more drawband, and then carefully loop the slack around the drum one more time. It's a fiddly process, but it's one that works and I have often done on other models in the past.
Good luck.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 637
Re: Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
It's also possible, and maybe more likely, that there is extra drag in the carriage track caused by gunk--hardened excess grease, eraser crumbs, dust, hair, etc. A bump could have misaligned the tracks; any evidence of that? I think these are more likely than that the spring is losing tension in such a new(ish) machine. *If* drag is the problem, more tension is the wrong solution.
The tab function's tension is the same as the regular typing advance tension; does the carriage move more slowly during regular typing at the right end of the carriage? Some typewriters have a brake on the tab to keep it from hitting its stop too hard. I don't know whether the SM9 has this but if it does, perhaps that is sticking, and that might not affect the regular typing.
Ain't diagnosing fun?
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
M. Höhne wrote:
Ain't diagnosing fun?
Yes. 
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- thetypewriterman
- Key Master
Offline
- From: Leiston, England
- Registered: 29-5-2013
- Posts: 919
Re: Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
It could be worth checking out the tabulator brake (which this model has). I came across an interesting fault on one of these units earlier this year. The tab. brake has four aluminium shoes with cork friction inserts. When the axle is spun, the shoes are thrown out by centrifigal force and the corks drag on the inside of the brake drum. What had happened was that one of the shoes (actually a Mazak die casting) had expanded and was jamming the tab. brake up. In the end, I removed the offending shoe, leaving the remaining three. The tab. brake worked fine after that !
- Uwe
- Moderator
Offline
- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Oly SM9 needs tabulator tension adjustment
Sorry for highjacking this thread a little, but I wonder if anyone has come across what I consider to be a common problem with the later SM models. I own several SM machines, and of the five later generation models, three have an issue with the backspace function. I know it's just an adjustment that I haven't gotten around to yet, but when you press the backspace key on those machines it will move the carriage back two places.
Granted, five machines isn't a large sample to base such an assumption on, but 60 percent of my newer SM machines exhibit this problem so there must be something to it.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
