If a picture is worth a thousand words and my question suggests n untaken pictures, should I instead write n thousand words, and does it make any sound?

The Problem

Hermes 3000 square body, has seen significant use and its carriage knobs seem to have been replaced in the past (beige knobs to not match mint green keys, levers and buttons). All works as it should with the exception that every few paragraphs the lefthand carriage knob works its way out sufficiently to disengage the line space mechanism, and I find myself typing over the last line. The basic function -- out/release, in/engage -- works.

The Odyssey

Remove left knob with set screw on (outer) hub, pull the inner hub off the end of the shaft. Oh #$%$. Two leaf springs fall out. Leaf springs have a slight v-bend in them near the distal tip, a indent which spells D*E*T*E*N*T, and that means trouble, right here in Hermes City.  So, I say to myself says I, the detent function is not strong enough and that's why the inner hub is creeping out with the cumulative bump of carriage returns, and I set out to make the detent stronger by bending the springs into a more aggressive shape.

I start out slow and at first, nothing much happens. Bend them more and more and finally, It Makes Things Worse. Yes the knob seems to show increase resistance to being pulled out, but now a tiny bit of movement away from the carriage, far less than you would expect, releases the carriage.

Further consideration and solicitation of mechanical insight.... ah, ah, ah.... ah hah!  Maybe it's the ends of the leaf springs themselves which engage the hidden inner mechanism which engages the line spacing and, by bending the #$(*% out of them, I have shortened them so they disengage with a tiny amount of linear movement! Not giving up my earlier detent hypothesis entirely I now straighten one of the two springs and leave the other with the aggressive indent. It seems to work. I still have as much detent action as a boy could want; the knob pops out and pops back with a satisfying sense of stability, while I have increased the zone of engagement of the line space. It should work.

It does not work.  Oh, it may be working better, you may have to type more lines before the knob does a gotcha but gotcha it eventually does; just when I have been lulled into complacency I again find it extended enough to disengage the line spacing even though the linear motion of the knob seems as detent like as you could hope for: it's hard to pull out and its only stable positions seem to be all the way out and all the way in.  

The Desperation

If it's not vibrating its way out, maybe it's being knocked out? Only thing I can see remotely in the way of the knob is the clear plastic shield. It does not interfere with the knob but it could interfere with the knob if it were somehow deflected during the carriage return. But how?

The Stray Observations

When I pull off the inner hub with the springs the shaft moves and the line space lever disengages from a cam on the shaft which enables, well, the line spacing. Every time I pull the inner hub I have to loosen the line space lever and correct this. I tried blocking the motion of the knob altogether by wrapping some brass wire around the shaft, but, unable to mount the knob in the extended position it's seemingly impossible to mount it at all except by fixing it permanently to the shaft. Not ready to do this. The low points of the indents on the leaf springs showed bright metal and gouging the first time I pulled them out, possibly as a result of the very operational of pulling out the inside hub.

The Plaint

Missing every 10 or 20 line advances when concentrating on typing and not the typewriter is a deal killer for using a writing machine.

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