I have a Touch-Master Five that has never had a working automatic ribbon reversal mechanism, despite thorough cleaning and lubrication. As it has been mostly used for labels and such, this was no big deal, as the manual reverse lever worked just fine. It has, however, been a small irritation for the 18 months or so that the machine has been in my possession.

However, having some time on my hands, I took another look at the machine today, and to my surprise managed to fix it by simply exercising the little plungers that sit in the middle of the ribbon drive column. What the plungers do, exactly, is something of a mystery as the mechanism is internal to the ribbon columns. Nevertheless, determined to try again, I found that sImply picking up the plungers with a small screwdriver/ dental pick and pulling them up to their maximum height, maybe ¼” from the top of the ribbon spools, did the trick. There was a slight click in response to this and the mechanism sprang back to life.

The working hypothesis might be that the ribbon reversal mechanism tied to these plunger gets stuck deep down inside the ribbon column due to grease or dirt, whereas exercising the mechanism in this way unsticks it. I had cleaned and lubricated the two columns before, but evidently not enough.

Huzzah!