- Typophile
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- Registered: 29-3-2015
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
Hmm, I don't have one of those.
I have one of these, and it seems to have siezed - can move it very slightly but it won't turn enough to even get past the first tooth of the gear.
I took another look at what's going on this morning (daylight, and a sunny day make a big difference!). The pinion is there, but it is not engaged with the rack at all, and it and the starwheel aren't turnring when I press any of the keys, they just sort of move up and down a little and that's it. They look 'loose' in the way they move.
- Uwe
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
You have an older model than the one I pictured, but not a problem as it's basically the same idea. Given you have already found a few seized components it's probably safe to assume that there are several more that aren't moving freely and would be the root of your problem. It might be time to work your way through the entire machine, front to back, top to bottom, and start cleaning/degreasing everything to make sure that every part moves as its supposed to, otherwise you'll just keep solving one problem and then coming up on another.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Typophile
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
Uwe wrote:
You have an older model than the one I pictured, but not a problem as it's basically the same idea. Given you have already found a few seized components it's probably safe to assume that there are several more that aren't moving freely and would be the root of your problem. It might be time to work your way through the entire machine, front to back, top to bottom, and start cleaning/degreasing everything to make sure that every part moves as its supposed to, otherwise you'll just keep solving one problem and then coming up on another.
Good advice. :-) I actually started cleaning/degreasing today before seeing your reply! I've cleaned what I can get to so far, without taking anything apart. That time might be coming soon though as I'm reaching the limit of what I can reach/affect.
Apart from a handful of sticky keys everything else appears to be moving freely. Have been trying to work on that tension arm but it still won't play nice. Have tried a small amount of WD-40 and methylated spirit, so far no dice but will keep at it.
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Thread Starter- Typophile
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
Okay, figured out the tension wheel. Wasn't seized, just have to loosen/remove the screw to the right of it to allow it to move. I guess the screw is there to act as a 'lock'.
Tension now a little tighter, tomorrow I'll try to figure out why the pinion isn't meeting with the rack.
If anyone gets sick of me please let me know, this is all just quite exciting for me as I've never done anything like this before! The closest I've come was playing with Meccano as a kid! :D
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Thread Starter- Typophile
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
So tonight I finally removed the carriage, and it looks to be that my suspicions were correct:
The pinion/starwheel is very loose, and is pretty much falling out.
So, what now? I'm assuming I need to replace this part? Any ideas what might be 'missing' or 'broken' that would mean the starwheel/pinion is so loose like this? Looks like there might be a nut or something similar that's supposed to keep the starwheel in place but isn't there?
On the positive side though, I've managed to clean out a lot more and things are looking better, and I also managed to sort out the couple of sticking keys I had which is very pleasing.
Last edited by Typophile (10-4-2015 20:47:04)
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Thread Starter- Typophile
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Re: Underwood Standard 3 - Carriage Won't Advance
Me again. 
I managed to find and purchase a replacement escapement on eBay, and a good thing too as I've since discovered I had a few pieces missing! The nut that keeps the starwheel in place, the 'cap' (sorry don't know a better word for this) that is just behind the nut, and all the ball bearings contained within were all missing from mine, and the 'screw' part of the starwheel appears to have been broken so if I'd only bought the nut it would have had nothing to screw onto!
So the question I now have is... how much of the escapement do I need to disassemble to be able to remove the old starwheel and fit the new one? At the moment the only thing I've removed from my typewriter is the carriage, the escapement is still attached to the base etc. I'm guessing I need to actually remove it from the base and then take at least part of it apart to get to the wheel, which is a little daunting! 
BTW - how many ball bearings should there be? A few of mine fell to the floor when I removed the 'cap' (not knowing it contained them!). I've located 14 but not sure if some are still unaccounted for!
Last edited by Typophile (26-4-2015 15:41:32)
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