Olivetti Lettera (Pluma) 22 - Carriage Not Gripping at Left Margin

As I've said before, it's hard trying to help someone fix their typewriter from thousands of miles away. It's harder still when we don't talk to same lingo.

Yes, we've had a few language difficulties, but bit by bit Francisco Pérez (country unknown to me) and I seem to be getting the problems with Francisco's grandfather's Olivetti Lettera (Pluma) 22 sorted out.

I think Francisco did a pretty good job fixing the mainspring and drawband, having taken the mainspring off the machine, opened its casing and (admittedly with the use of four hands) succeeded in getting the spring operational again.

But after putting the mainspring back on, re-attaching the drawband and replacing the mask, Francisco ran into another road bump. This is the one he filmed (above) - that is, of the carriage not gripping at the left margin.

Having watched the video, and after much thought (and based on past experience), I came to the suspicion that Francisco, in reassembling the Pluma 22, might have inadvertently created this new problem.

I think I've covered this before on this blog, but one has to be very careful when reassembling an early Lettera 22, to ensure these original margin release and tabulation mechanisms don't inherit some impediments in the process. (Olivetti changed this mechanism as the Lettera 22 advanced toward the Lettera 32.)

It's a fairly tight fit at the back of the mask, and experience tells me it's easy to upset these settings when fitting the mask back on.

I've suggested to Francisco that he take the mask off again and check the margin release and tabulation mechanisms against the photos I have sent him. Fingers crossed, he will find what is causing the problem of the carriage not gripping at the left margin.