Thanks for that link -- I had seen it some time ago but it had passed from my memory. I will investigate. How I remove the brake assembly is something I do not know, and really don't want to mess up. So I would appreciate any advice on that.

My guess is that my typewriter's previous (and original) owner -- the proverbial little old lady who "only drove it to church on Sundays" probably never used the tab, and the tab brake assembly has gummed up from lack of use. 

I love the typeface on this machine. Based on the brochure that came with it, it's the elite no. 8 (11 pitch). It looks the same as the elite no. 87, but just a little more space between characters. For improved readability, maybe? Or just to have the "Continental standard" pitch available in elite?

As Richard Polt says in his book, you could probably get along quite nicely if your only typewriter was an SM9, and it's hard to dispute him. 

The brochure is 39 pages of product and pricing information -- effective date of July 1, 1966. Lots of information on models, of course (including special purpose machines (a coin-operated SG Electric!)), the typefaces, available keyboards, special purpose characters for different applications (genealogy?! upper- and lower case Volkswagen logos?!), trade-in allowances on other brand models toward purchases of Olympias, etc. Olympia porn, if you will.

I came across this and it's very helpful: http://bucktypes.tumblr.com/post/72697974573/olympia-sm-typewriter-tabulator But then I realized that removing the back panel on an SM9 to get at the tab brake is pretty hard, in fact, there is no back panel -- it looks like the entire lower shell is in one piece. So how do I remove the bottom body shell? Something tells me this is a pain in the neck.... Thanks for any assistance.