1 of 1- kog
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Offline - Registered: 22-9-2016
- Posts: 6
Another olympia sm9 that needs help
Hello,
Some time ago I rescued from the garbage bin a small mouldy suitcase containing an Olympia sm9. The key word here is "mouldy". The basement in which it was kept was flooded at least two times in recent years and I don't know how many times before. The case was so rotten and full of living or once living things that it had to go back in the garbage.
Surprisingly the typewriter was in good condition given the store conditions. It is a bit rusty and I think I will have to repaint it. After I cleaned it and unstuck the rollers from the platen I got it to work partially. The keys still stick even after three rounds of isoprolylic alcohol,wd40(that was cleaned) and compressed air. They work after cleaning but in a couple of hours a few get stuck and sticky so tomorrow the typebar slots under the ring will get soaked in paint thinner.
The problem that I can't seem to fix is related to the ribbon vibrator and the typing force lever. The vibrator will not get down unless the force lever is at least in the halfway position. If it is pushed all the way back the vibrator remains up and the ribbon will not advance. If I push it with my finger down it falls into place easily. The other thing wrong with it is the colour selector. At first it was stuck on black, no matter the position of the lever. Now it works, but on stencil mode the vibrator remains in position so the typebars still hit the ribbon. I looked for loose or broken springs, frozen levers and anything that might be wrong with the vibrator or the ribbon mechanism and I can't find a solution.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks
- TypewriterKing
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- From: DeepInTheHeartO', Texas
- Registered: 17-2-2016
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Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
Does anything seem bent or roughly surfaced in those areas? I know that metal soaked in water for awhile gets a rough surface, and needs to be sanded a little bit. Take a look at all your surfaces and clean them where you can. When you get them smooth, use a little tranny fluid to loosen things up, and wipe out the excess once things are loosened enough to where they will work. Tranny fluid, I'm not sure, but it seems to have a detergent effect on mechanisms. That's why I used it. An old friend of mine gave me the idea. He used to unstick engines with it after they have sat for years. I've found it works in the worst offending areas where sticking on different machines was the most stubborn. Sometimes, you have to wait a couple or three days for it to really loosen up. Anyway, try that, and see how you come out.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
HI
I think you should not have used WD40 or any oil-like liquid at all on the type slots. They need to be cleaned (and cleaned and cleaned) but should never be oiled. I suggest you commence a rigorous cleaning programme for these slots, using meths (denatured alcohol) in order to remove the inevitable residue from all previous fluids and all traces of gunk. Use search function here and look up all the threads on cleaning the 'section'. Same may apply to your other problems; there are few places where oil is permitted in the mechanism, and everything should begin with serious attempts to clean out all traces of previous oils. Good luck.
Sincerely,
beak.
- kog
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Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
Thanks, I know about not oiling. I used wd to soften the rust if there was any in the slots, but I cleaned it with alcohol and some special grease/oils removing fluid. After using the keys many times there is gunk coming out of the slots but they still freeze up in a couple of hours. I guess I will spend another afternoon messing with it. The good part is that because of the oil treatment received before, it did not rust in the flooded basement.
- •
Thread Starter- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
I hope it works - cleaning usually does the trick eventually, and it is the only way. For extremely dirty and corroded slots there are other more aggressive methods which you may find under 'search', but please never be tempted by any of them until you have absolutely convinced yourself that more ordinary cleaning (which is usually the answer) is just never going to do it.
Sincerely,
beak.
- KatLondon
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
kog wrote:
After using the keys many times there is gunk coming out of the slots but they still freeze up in a couple of hours.
See, to me this is a sign that the cleaning is working! Even with a typewriter that hasn't been stored in such horrendous conditions I can find that it needs numerous big cleans, over a period of time, before it really settles down. I'd keep at it. If the meths seems a bit too drying you can use white spirits.
The other thing of course is to clean every single joint along the whole run of each letter shaft, or whatever they're called - from key to type bar. Loosening these joints up (& oiling them VERY lightly with sewing machine oil) can take a lot of the pressure off the segment.
You can even loosen up stuff using some sewing machine oil on a Q tip, and then clean THAT off with the meths... sort of alternating solvents as it were. I wouldn't do that in the segment though. But I would try and get in underneath and REALLY clean the segment from below.
In my experience the thing that really loosens up and helps the frozen machines is a combination of cleaning (I think of it as 'layers'), use (to loosen up whatever's trapped inside the bits you can't get to, for the next cleaning round) and time for all this to do its work.
Sounds amazing though! I'm surprised as you say that the machine is in such hopeful condition. 
- kog
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Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
News from today. It seems that I found something that really helped getting the dirt out. I used cif, the very slightly abrasive detergent. With a paintbrush I applied the cream in the slots and worked each key until it moved freely. After the machine seemed to work fine with the slots filled with detergent, I opened the bottle of alcohol and started washing out the slots using a toothbrush, paintbrush and working the keys all the time. I was amased of how much dirt mixed with the detergent gathered on the rag beneath the typewriter.
The whole operation took no more than 20 minutes. After a couple of hours I washed out the slots two more times and the job is done. The keys work well and no more sticking.
Unfortunately I can't seem to be able to fix the vibrator issue. I found a small spring that has almost no pulling power(I think it was intended that way) that linked a rod to the back plate of the machine frame in the left corner. If I change that spring with a tougher one the vibrator stays in place in stencil mode and doesn't remain stuck when the force lever is at "+". The force lever jumps by itself from "-" to about halfway to "+" when I type, but I think that is easily fixable.
So by using the stronger spring I think I am treating an effect, not the cause of the problem. I would take the carriage off, but there is a big chance to not be able to put it back. All the levers/rods/joints that I could see and reach have been cleaned and seem to work fine. Any other ideas?
- •
Thread Starter- KatLondon
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Another olympia sm9 that needs help
Actually I'll watch this one with interest...
