How to Fix “Zinging” / Runaway Carriage on a Typewriter – Escapement Pawl Spring - for ALL machines

I demonstrate a typewriter repair for the runaway carriage problem I get on some machines. The spring on the escapement - or escape wheel - pawl can come loose for whatever reason and so the carriage doesn't stay put unless you have either the space bar or one of the keys pressed down. Instead of clicking itself over one space at a time, the carriage flies away to the left like it has come loose.

I first show what that problem looks like on any typewriter and then I show you the view from the underside of the upturned machine with the bottom plate removed. This fix, once you have unscrewed the bottom plate - which is a different process on different typewriters - requires a pair of tweezers or something similarly pointy to manoeuvre a spring into its hole.

Literally, this works on ALL machines (this kind of typewriter is called an ALL) and, though there may be slightly different set ups for different makes and models, the principal of making sure the escape pawl is active and engaged to prevent the runaway carriage is applicable on most typewriters.

Timeline:

0:00 How a runaway carriage looks

0:24 The loose escapement pawl

0:43 reattaching the pawl spring

1:24 carriage spacing properly again

To find out more about my typewriter repair workshop, Clackers Clinic, in Auckland, New Zealand, please visit: www.clackersclinic.com which has photographs of other typewriters I've repaired and some information designed to be useful for New Zealand writers looking at getting a typewriter for their next work.

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