1 of 1- QueenJaneApproximately
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Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
Hi all! I'm having a few minor issues with my 195X (all green keys, metal case) S-C Skyriter. This may be a simple fix, but I have no idea how to fix it. The carriage sticks in the middle of the page, right in the center, and again on the far-ish right. It can be easily fixed with a few strikes of the shift/space keys together, but I wish I could figure out the actual problem so there wasn't a crude middle and side line in my writings! Also, the ink ribbon doesn't advance well, perhaps a 10th of a turn each strike if I'm lucky. Thank you in advance!
- M. Höhne
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
QueenJaneApproximately wrote:
.... snip .... Also, the ink ribbon doesn't advance well, perhaps a 10th of a turn each strike if I'm lucky. Thank you in advance!
Do you mean the ribbon spool turns about 36 degrees with each strike of a character against the platen? That's a *huge* amount, way more than usual. Is that correct and, if so, what is the actual problem? What does it mean to be lucky here? The spool will turn more as it empties, but still not that much.
- TypewriterGuy
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
Well, the first thing you can try is (If you dare) take off the carriage. If you dont, just move it all the way to one side. (This is what I usually do to clean the carriage rails) Spray some degreaser on it, that ways, it takes off all the junky old oil. Then, wipe it dry and put some new oil on. Should work great again! Another thing, with all typewriters, the less you use them, the less they will work. So if yours had been sitting for 40 years, just keep typing on it every day to loosen it up.
Back from a long break.
Starting fresh with my favorite typer. A Royal Futura!
- Uwe
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
I don't recommend removing the carriage as the first thing to try.
I've solved many a carriage travel issue by just thoroughly cleaning the rails and ball bearings that it travels on, and although it is easier to do this with the carriage off, I rarely have to go that far. I use Q-Tip swabs soaked in mineral spirits to clean as much of the rail as possible from either end (both the sections that are mounted on the machine and those on the carriage. You can access the rail sections easier by moving the carriage to its extreme left and right positions. After your swabs stob turning black, try moving the carriage back and forth to see if its movement has improved. If it has, then I would apply a little sewing machine oil to another cotton swab and apply it to the rails again.
If the swabs remain clean and the carriage is still getting stuck, then we have to dig into this a little further.
With respect to the spool movement, I agree with Mr. Höhne's comments that it sounds like they are working more or less as they should. The ribbon should only inch through the vibrator a fraction of an inch with every keystroke to efficiently use every bit of the ribbon.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- QueenJaneApproximately
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
Thank you all, I'm going to try to clean the carriage! I'm very familiar with 1950s stereo equipment, so I know how to be relatively gentle. I had a Royal Safari until I sold it around a year ago to help pay for a prom dress, but I caved and bought this portable after realizing the strain of having to write my stories by hand. I'm going to use degreaser on the carriage rail, and then regrease it following cleaning the ball bearing with mineral spirits. The ink ribbon moves correctly (I am NOT proficient with numbers, sorry about the 1/10th) but the keys aren't striking quite hard enough- but perhaps that's the spring tension? I don't know... I adjusted the tension lever which minimally impacted performance.
- •
Thread Starter- QueenJaneApproximately
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
I don't recommend removing the carriage as the first thing to try.
I've solved many a carriage travel issue by just thoroughly cleaning the rails and ball bearings that it travels on, and although it is easier to do this with the carriage off, I rarely have to go that far. I use Q-Tip swabs soaked in mineral spirits to clean as much of the rail as possible from either end (both the sections that are mounted on the machine and those on the carriage. You can access the rail sections easier by moving the carriage to its extreme left and right positions. After your swabs stob turning black, try moving the carriage back and forth to see if its movement has improved. If it has, then I would apply a little sewing machine oil to another cotton swab and apply it to the rails again.
If the swabs remain clean and the carriage is still getting stuck, then we have to dig into this a little further.
With respect to the spool movement, I agree with Mr. Höhne's comments that it sounds like they are working more or less as they should. The ribbon should only inch through the vibrator a fraction of an inch with every keystroke to efficiently use every bit of the ribbon.
I will attempt this first before any other drastic method. Thank you for so much information!
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Thread Starter- QueenJaneApproximately
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
Following a complete cleaning, I found the issue for both the carriage as well as the take up spool. The case is bent. I used a rubber hammer to straighten out the side which locked the carriage, but the spool issue requires me to straighten the entire top flap, which I can't do without removing the mechanics from the body. There are no screws, so I'm having a really tough time trying to get it out. Anyone know how to remove it?
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Thread Starter- malole
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Re: Smith-Corona Skyriter Sticky Carriage
There are two little screws which hold the body shell to the body. Move the carriage to it full extent either side and you will see one screw each side on the bottom part of the shell. Once these are removed, you can lift the body out of the shell by taking it up and back, sort of at an angle - there are two slots & tabs one each side at the front of the machine to the sides of the keyboard, these are all that is now holding the shell to the body. Slot part is on the shell, tab part is part of the body of the machine.
Sorry I can't give you a picture at the moment.
Hope this helps a bit. It's not at all difficult to get the skyriter out of its shell and back in again once you find those two little screws. In fact, the easiest one I've come across so far. Don't forget to put the screws in a jar with a lid! They are too easy to drop on the floor and lose (yeah, I have done the crawling about with a torch!)
(found a pic with the location of the screw on the right hand side, adjacent to the serial number. Sorry it's not that clear, but you can just make out where the screw is on the frame of the body underneath the part with the more visible screw - don't undo that one! The screw you want here is directly north in the pic of the letter Y in the serial no. Apologies for the convoluted reply!
Last edited by malole (17-5-2015 17:38:27)
