Hi Folks,

Royal 10, serial # X-1126867 (circa 1927), carriage shift.  Found in thrift store for $35, it was in extremely good condition for a 'found in the wild' machine.  Almost no rust, missing the two glass bevels (but still had one frame), a couple of nuts missing from the carriage (shoulder nuts that retain the paper tray while allowing it to rotate), the usual petrified rubber (no serious flats or cracks)... typebars gooey, of course.

Much cleaning, judicious light oiling (Hoppes #9 gun oil and/or Singer sewing machine oil only) of pivots and sliding surfaces (nothing in basket), tensioned drawband to something less than a two-pound pull, some adjustments to reduce mechanical slop from wear.  All in all, a nicely functioning machine - - except for the margin release.

Line lock bail was bent, as was one of the cylindrical pivots of the bail mounting screws.  Very carefully straightened the bail and the stub shaft, until the bail moved freely across it's full range by it's own weight.  Set the right margin at a random location and tested for function; stops as it should.  Press margin release and the center stop and line lock trip finger move rearward.  Hit the spacebar once, and that's where it locks up; no more key presses possible.  Jamming the margin release key in to the stop sometimes frees it up enough to type past the margin, but mostly doesn't.  Depressing the TAB key very slightly moves the center stop back enough to allow for continued typing past the margin setting.

Close observation revealed that when the margin set slider screw contacted the line lock finger, it was really mashing hard against the stop, creating excessive (?) friction that was interfering with the rearward movement of the stop (a guess.)  Re-adjusted the contact screw on the margin set slider so as the carriage came to it's natural stop point (for any key press), the line lock finger was depressed *just* enough to engage the line lock... no excessive side pressure on stop & finger.  Still no joy... depressing the margin release key moves the stop & finger back barely enough to allow the margin slider to pass, but when releasing the margin release key, it 'sags' or 'droops' back toward the front just a tiny amount (half-millimeter range or so), which is enough for the margin slider housing to snag the line lock finger and re-engage the line lock.  On the rare occasion it manages to slip past the line lock finger, it then snags on the center stop itself.  Further pressing of the margin release key does nothing, I have to either manually use the linkages or just pull back on the stop, OR press the TAB key slightly to get the tiny amount of rearward movement of the stop.

I can find no adjustment of any kind that would prevent this 'droop' of the stop; the long link from the pivot arm of the margin release button to the large arm at the rear of the machine that carries the stop and lock finger appears to have an adjuster, but there's NO locknut present, and it absolutely will NOT turn, even after PB Blaster penetrant and heating.  No threads are visible on either half of the link rod; if it IS an actual adjustment and not a swaged fitting, all available adjustment is already used (I'd assume removal of the locknut to get every last bit of travel from the keypress??)

I'm not sure at this point if the margin release key linkage is the main culprit, or if there's an issue with the center stop travel being reduced by close to a hundred years of usage.  Might even be a matter of 'slop creep,' with tiny amounts of wear at each and every contact point all adding up to an insufficient amount of movement of the stop, combined with even more wear of the pivots of the stop mechanism.  General overall wear, in other words, that no built-in adjustments are likely to compensate for.

Is anyone aware of an adjustment for stop clearance when the margin release key is pressed?  Should the stop hold it's position (as it would with something like a ball detent) or does it remain free-floating and the carriage should just have enough grunt to force it's way past it?  I have no trouble-free machine to compare it to, so I'm not even certain exactly how this SHOULD be working, if what I'm seeing is abnormal or not.  May even be a "classic Royal 10" issue for all I know or have been able to find out.

I was a mechanic for decades and an amateur machinist, so I'm comfortable with digging into the workings, and can modify something to a degree if that's what's needed.  This thing with old typewriter repair / restoration is just something to keep a retired mechanic from going stir crazy, and from losing the skills I spend decades acquiring!  ;-)

Any thoughts or suggestions gratefully received!!

Karl