If you want real fun with an IBM, play around with the memorywriters.
I used to hate working on those.


On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:03:16 +1000, "Larry" wrote:



wrote:
: I have had a Selectric III for quite a few years and it has always
: worked perfectly. As I was using it today, and while it was working
: just fine, in mid-sentence, it began typing characters that didn't
: correspond to the keys I was hitting. Any idea what's going on? It's
: never done this before.

These 3 items would cause wrong characters that would not be perfectlt
formed characters:

1. Take the ball off and look up the centre of it. Is there a thin groove
in the circular piece or is that broken out?

2. While the ball is off, check the back of the tilt ring (thing the ball
mounts on) and see if the vertical spring on the back of it is not broken.
This spring pulls the rotate detent up and locks the ball in position
rotationally when it strikes the paper.

3. With the ball still off; on the left side of the tilt ring is the tilt
detent which locks the tilt ring in one of the 4 rows of letters when the
ball strikes the paper. It is a vertical spring that you can see to the
left and on the left side of the left post.

If the characters are wrong but perfectly formed, my guess would be a broken
spring down inside on one of the selector interposers. You would likely
need to get help to find this. There are people repairing them still. Try
Googling selectric repair. Here is one I found http://www.selectric.com/
Where do you live?

Larry (Retired IBM tech)
larry17 at gmail.com