1 of 1- ShadyDaze
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Offline - Registered: 01-7-2025
- Posts: 7
LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
I just bought a 1937 LC Smith Silent Super-Speed. Everything seems to work properly, no sticky keys, pliant platen roller and the tab function seems to be working as designed.
But I can only type on the right side of the paper. The carriage only returns halfway and then stops with a clunk, like it's hitting a stop.
Everything seems to be clear in the tabulator housing. Nothing out of place, or protruding.
Has anyone seen this before? Is there something that could be out of place under the carriage? A carriage lock I haven't found yet?
- skywatcher
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Re: LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
Hi Shady
The first thing I'd check is the margin release, does the carriage go any further is you press the margin release key while returning the carriage? I this doesn't help, I'd say you either have a piece of debris or something stuck in the rack or in the carriage track where the small star wheels round the carriage balls run. Hope this gives you some ideas,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- ShadyDaze
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Re: LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
Thanks. I went and double-checked. The margins stops are all the way out and pressing the margin release doesn't fix anything.
I've already checked the cog rail under the carriage without finding anything. And it doesn't feel like debris in the gears. It feels, and sounds, like I'm running into a solid block.
I shifted the type basket, in hopes that something was protruding, but still nothing. The carriage runs all the way to the right and rings the bell, but only moves about 3 spaces past the center to the left before hitting something solid.
And removing the platen just shows how round and smooth the feed rollers are. Nice, but not helpful.
I think I need a service manual.
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Thread Starter- ShadyDaze
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Re: LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
Sorry, reverse that. The carriage moves to the right, but not to the left.
Working from the back of the typewriter has screwed up my sense of direction.
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Thread Starter- ShadyDaze
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Re: LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
Aaargh! It's backward again!
All the way to the left, not to the right.
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Thread Starter- ShadyDaze
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Re: LC Smith carriage only returns halfway.
I give up. It goes to the end, but only halfway back to the beginning.
I'm so lost, today.
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Thread Starter