I have the Repair Bible, but it's for the latter Babys. According to the manual, the main spring has a simple screw. There's even a notch in the frame to easily remove it.



Not so on my '39. I had to remove the carriage fulcrum screws to lift the whole thing up or off the frame enough to get access. And it's got this unusual post and pin-like thing on it.

Otherwise, though, the manual has been pretty close to my machine - as much as to be expected from 25 years or so of evolution of the same model.

Hi Rob

Getting it apart would be the easy part, file or grind off the 4 tabs from one side or the other and the spring drum will come apart. The hard part would then be to get the drum to stay together once you've reassembled it as there will not be enough metal left on the tabs to swage over again. One alternative would be to take it to a clock maker/repair shop to see if they can give you any suggestions, or repair the spring/drum for you. All the best,

Sky

Hi Again Rob

If one were to file the sides off each tab so the remains of the tabs can slide through the slots, that might leave enough metal to stake with a center punch. My thinking about a clock maker comes from the fact that a typewriter uses a coiled spring to drive an escapement via a draw cord as opposed to the series of gears in a clock.

If you ever watch the British television program called "The Repair Shop", Steve Fletcher the horologist repairs all manner of clockwork toys as well as clocks and watches. The mainspring in a typewriter works on the exact same principal as the recoil spring in the starter of a small engine. You pull the cord out to start the engine and the spring pulls the cord back in again. The system on a typewriter is just a whole lot smaller.

Sky