Progress: The Oliver Advances!

Yesterday I wrote about an issue I was having with my Oliver No. 9: the carriage wasn’t advancing on typing and the ribbon vibrator seemed limited in range of motion.

An eagle-eyed reader of yesterday’s post, Tyler of Words Are Winged, watched my long-winded videos and examined the pictures and suggested that I try tightening a nut under the machine – it seemed a bit loose to him.

Underneath the machine, near the center, is a hook with a tightening nut attached that adjusts tension on the space bar. I believe this is called the “Space-Lever Nut“. I found that tightening the nut (not too much and not too little) I was able to finally get a response from my space bar. It sounded with a satisfying thump and for the first time, the ribbon vibrator moved fully forward and fully back –  all by itself.

And the carriage advanced. Hurray!

Striking the regular keys does not cause carriage advancement – yet. When I strike a key, the ribbon vibrator gives a little wiggle but does not jump forward and back the way it does when the space bar is hit.

Here is another video of the Oliver’s current state. If you see something in the video that jumps out at you, let me know in the comments.

And more pictures:

View underneath from front to back – this is the hook – I tightened the nut attached to it and the space bar began to respond

Of note: here’s a little pin in the ribbon vibrator mechanism that migrates out slowly during typing – I tap it back in when it gets too far out.