Your rotate tape may be either broken or bent. Other problems could be found on the arms that control tilt and rotate. Then again, your ball may also have come loose or the pin hole may be cracked. The main problem is that it is a 3 pitch machine and we used to call them a nightmare until IBM came out with their earlier electronic made from Selectrics.
To be honest, They are not cheap and are still being made for use in the insurance and transportation industry. I just sold 10 of them to a large insurance comapny.
I serviced both the Selectric I, II and III for more than a decade, attending to hundreds (possibly thousands) of service calls. I recall the Selectrics to be only two pitches - 10 and 12. Although these were completely mechanical, I never thought of them as a nightmare. The Selectric Electronic you mention, however - the still very mechanical "ELT", was to me a nightmare. Mercifully it was soon replaced by the daisywheel "Wheelwriters"
Henry Mydlarz
Hello,
I'm French and i love very much the IBM selectric typewriter. I have created a site :
If you have a question about it or If you want to buy to me a ribbon, parts, golfball, printwheel, quiet fonts, or complete typewriter (in french condition = AZERTY) contact me at :
snipped-for-privacy@ihop.fr or snipped-for-privacy@neuf.fr
-----> I'm sorry for my bad english :-/
Bye
Renaud
I have seen IBM Selectric Typewriters for sale in the thrift stores before, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Rescue Mission.Goodwill usually sells typewriters for $7.00, unless the prices have gone up lately.
Might depend on the area, but I haven't seen a typewriter of any sort in a thrift store in over a decade.
Once again, most anywhere in the 'rust belt' (or Great Lakes northern states); average price of typewriters at Goodwill: $2.00
Michael
I have bought (and still own) four old typewriters at the thrift stores around here before.Three of them are very old vintage Underwood typewriters.I also own a very old brass cash register I bought at a thrift store years ago, it has beveled glass windows on it.A thing of beauty it is, so are my old vintage typewriters.Those IBM Selectric typewriters though, I always thought they were only regular typewriters.If I see one at a thrift store again for sale for only a few dollars, I will buy it just for the heck of it. cuhulin
snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news:12978-47C06698-555@storefull-
3258.bay.webtv.net:
I have an Underwood radio telegraphy 'mill' for copying CW. Pin feed roller, all caps with a 'slash zero' and a similar Underwood regular typewriter.
-- bz 73 de N5BZ k please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an infinite set. bz+ser@ch100-5.chem.lsu.edu remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap
If you take the case off the Selectric, you will see a couple of pulleys on the right hand side where the tilt and rotate tape are operated from.Bothe of these pulleys have and adjustable threaded rodon them for adjustments. Depending on which letter is misfiring, side by side or up and down, that will determine which tape pulley to adjust. Do not make to maney turns on the shaft or you will throw the alignment way off. Good luck
If you want real fun with an IBM, play around with the memorywriters. I used to hate working on those.
I fixed IBM selectric typewriters, along with their typebar and dictation equipment from 1977-1980. I still have the original service manuals and parts for them in my old tool bag including my half cycle wheel...
Sal
I still have all my IBM tools and still use them to this day. I am just missing my manual as it was destroyed in a fire and I have not been able to find a replacement.
I have all kinds of old antquated business machines. I like to display them in my shop, after I recondition them, and allow school kids to take tours and see the machines.
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