Hiya guys,

I recently came into possession of my first typewriter, a gorgeous Imperial 70. She's  a 'standard' typewriter, so she's pretty hefty but has been working completely fine up until recently. The carriage moves along fine when typing, but at some point during the line (it varies a lot, so there isn't a set point), it sort of just stops. The best way to describe what happens is that it 'runs out of steam', like it will move slower and slower until it stops entirely and typing will just print letters on top of each other. She's not the sort of typewriter where you can see the drum if you push the carriage all the way to the left, so I can't get a good look in there.

A few things worth noting:
 - She had been working totally fine until recently. She hasn't been moved, knocked, or messed around with (aside from typing on her) during this time.
 - I changed the ribbon about three or four weeks ago, but she worked fine after that, too, so I don't think that's the problem (or what caused it).
 - If I use my right hand to push the carriage to the left while I type with my left hand, it works fine.
 - Releasing the carriage so it slides freely left and right indicates that it has no problems; it doesn't get stuck when sliding in either direction.

I'm sort of at a loss here. I hoped that some of you guys might be able to help me out Just bear in mind that I am in no way experienced with typewriters and I'm pretty afraid to start unscrewing panels and such in case I break something. Thanks for your help!

 - Rin

(Afraid I can't include images as of yet as this is the first post I have made and the forum appears to have spam control (which is fair enough).)