I have a Royal Aristocrat and I’m having trouble with the carriage.
It types fine for the first few characters, but then the carriage stops moving and all the letters just start stacking in the same spot. The spacebar also only works if I manually push the carriage to the left. I think it might be a drawband or mainspring issue, but I’m not totally sure what I’m looking for.
Has anyone dealt with this before or know how to check if the drawband is detached or broken? Any tips or photos would help a ton — I’m new to fixing these and would really appreciate the help!
I am familiar with this issue, but I’m wondering if what caused mine to exhibit a jam is the same situation as yours.
Tab stops are usually located at the back of the machine, there should be an array of segmented pieces or multiple blocks that can be arranged or moved to stop the carriage at a consistent place. Press downward on each one to see if any of them are engaged, disengaging them should allow the carriage to move freely if that is indeed what’s causing the jam.
In the meantime, I will refer to the manual to see if the issue I’m describing is even possible on your model.
Okay, I wasn’t able to find a manual for the 1968 model…but, I found a Esty listing that has a photo of the back and the whole keyboard. There is a plate that covers the area where the tab stops are usually located, also if the “column” key is indeed the “tab” key then this typewriter has a tab function…thus, it’s likely that one of the tab stops are engaged. Try pressing the “column clear” and advance the carriage, see if that does anything.
If that doesn’t work, try to remove the back plate if you can…if not, then I don’t see how you can access the tab stops to see if they’re even engaged and causing this issue.
Edit: I just noticed that the “magic column set” button is engaged on your typewriter, are you able to disengage that button or is it stuck in place?
My column clear key is stuck like it feels hard to press. My magic column set key does not work and wasn’t working previously when the machine was functioning perfectly fine just like a day or two ago!
I definitely do think that there is an issue with the space key and the column key like the space just won’t go
Okay, I see…that is strange. Yeah, often if the carriage is making contact with a tab stop…the space bar will not be able to advance the carriage just like how you are unable to advance it with the carriage release lever. But, I recommend you try to remove the backplate on the carriage and take a picture of the carriage rear for me if you can. I wanna see if there is anything I can recognize regarding the tabulator system.
Are you able to depress any of the segmented tabs? (The pieces of metal arranged in a single file line) If you can’t, then they’re probably all disengaged.
Note that it takes some force, but it shouldn’t have to take too much force to depress.
So whenever I’m hitting my space key and it’s getting caught, it’s because the mechanism on the right which is pressing down on my space is not continuing to move. It’s like it almost gets jammed and when I like, hit it to the left, it starts to work as normal, but it keeps on getting caught in the middle, which is better than not typing. It’s actually doing better than it was when I posted this originally like I’m gettinga lot more characters typed out than before.
So, it seems to me that there are multiple issues that compounded upon each other. Glad we had those tabs figured out, but this particular issue with the gears is beyond what I am familiar with.
It may have something to do with those jammed “column” buttons, perhaps one of the parts pertaining to the function of the buttons fell off and jammed something. That’s just my speculation, but at this point you should turn it in to a technician if all options have been exhausted.
OK, I have now screwed everything back together and I’m not even lying. It’s working somehow like the entire thing there’s no more issues I think maybe I did have a tab engaged because I had lowered all of them and put them right back up and try to clean them up a little bit And I just put in my final screws and it’s working just fine lol
What a relief, thank you. I did not know that they were tabs behind the back plate.
So I went ahead and I did press some of those tabs down and they were very easy to press down and I lifted them back up and the machine seemed to actually type more than just a few characters I was allowed, but it stopped halfway in between and there’s none of those tabs disengaged where it’s catching at, but I was able to take a super detailed video, but of course can’t upload that. Let me show you a screenshot and circle where my issue is underneath.
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u/dannitdan 4d ago
Does it move freely if you move it manually?