Continued battle with tab/return cords on the 1053 console printer; installing new console loader

USED TIPS OR VARIANTS TO GET THE CORD CONNECTED AND TRIED TO TENSION IT

I secured the carrier return cord to the bottom of the carrier with a bit of tape while I was routing cord around, removing it once things were under tension. Similar tips helped with the whack-a-mole problem I had last time I worked on this. 

I put a clamp on the spring loaded pulley that adjusts the cord tension, to counteract the spring force. This permits me to route the cord and tighten it without fighting the power of that spring. 

STRIPPING THREADS ON RETURN DRUM

I rotated the return drum relative to the axle as a way of taking up cord and shortening it. When I had it in the proper position I tightened down the two screws that sit 90 degrees apart to lock the return drum to the rest of the mechanism. I removed the clamp and checked the cord tension, but I saw the return drum move on its own a few times, releasing too much tension.

I reset the position and tried to tighten the screws a bit more firmly. One of them was spinning without ever feeling tight and the other initially felt tight then just fell right out! When I looked at the screws I could see that the threaded hole was stripping and releasing bits of aluminum. 

This won't work. I looked back at the other assembly that I had removed, the one where the drum was almost frozen on the axle and wouldn't rotate with the screws loosened. I had done a swap with parts from a donor Selectric but now the return hub is ruined on the machine.

GETTING GOOD DRUM OFF FROZEN AXLE I PREVIOUSLY REMOVED

The threads and screws of the return drum I had pulled from this machine looked good, in spite of the drum not turning on the axle. I used clock oil and finessed the drum to come off the axle. I could see that the axle was really scraped up, the cause of the frozen position. Now I have a good drum that needs to go on the working axle I put into the machine.

REPEAT OF HEART-LUNG SURGERY TO SWAP RETURN DRUM

What this portends is another major surgery. I will remove the cords, remove the entire assembly, mainspring etc before taking the bad return drum off it and installing the better drum. Once I am convinced that the return drum will rotate freely and then lock down when the screws are tightened, without stripping them out, I will put it all back together. Then back to the cord installation and adjustment. 

INSTALL OF TESTED NEW CONSOLE LOADER BEHIND PRINTER FRONT PANEL

The front panel of the console printer (1053) has 16 toggle switches that comprise the Console Entry Switches, an I/O device the program can interrogate. My new console loader fits on the rear of that panel, underneath and inside the typewriter in unused space, with the wires running up to the console entry switches to virtually switch them while loading.

The remaining connections, to power and to the pushbuttons Prog Start and Load IAR, run out of a notch at the base of the front panel where the CES connections are routed down to the logic inside the 1130. One final connection, a USB cable, will run out of that notch along with my and IBM's cables. 

Here you can see me in the process of joining the console loader CES cable to the wires (white) I already installed on the toggle switches. Once this is done, I will wire in the other cable to the buttons then fashion the mechanical connections of the console loader to the back of the front panel.