REINSTALLING CARRIAGE ASSEMBLY
I brought the mechanism over from the workbench on my hydraulic lift cart so I didn't have to carry it myself due to its weight. I had a wood board placed over the frame onto which I placed the carriage. I then slide the carriage and lowered it onto its mounts in the machine.
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Bar onto which the carriage installs |
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Carriage in place |
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front view of carriage in place |
The board went away and I began reinstalling the metal plates that form a floor around the printer unit when viewed from the top of the printer. This involved temporarily lifting one end of the carriage to get two of the plates in place inside the frame. To lift the carriage, the shoulder bolt for the right side has to be removed to tilt the unit up.
There is a catch-22 situation between the carriage, the metal plates and the shoulder bolt. The bolt unscrews on the same plane as the metal plates, thus one of them will prevent removing or reinserting the bolt. This is the right rear plate.
The right front plate needs the carriage lifted to get the plate inside the frame for attachment. The left rear plate needs the carriage lifted to get that plate under the carriage assembly since the sheet is formed to fit around some brackets under the carriage.
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obstruction blocking left rear plate from sliding under carriage |
Once the right front and left rear plates are attached and fastened down, the carriage is lowered and the shoulder bolt tightened. This has to occur with the right read plate out of the machine. That plate is slid in from the bottom and just makes it past the frame and other obstructions, so that it can also be fastened down.
The cable plug was reinserted into the receptacle on the rear of the carriage and its cable straps bolted down on the frame. The ground strap was reconnected from the carriage to the frame.
INSTALLING PRINT WHEEL ASSEMBLY
The Print Wheel assembly was lowered into place next. Rusty frame and very tight machined fit, so it didn't just slide into place. It did take some judicious tapping with a hammer to move it down to the position where its bolts could be reattached.
The home-made alignment tool (cut up aluminum ruler) held the wheels in the gap between the R and E characters. I had set the timing disk wheel so that the hole pattern for the numeral 9 was in front of the photocells - this is the position that synchronizes with the wheels when they are held by the alignment tool. I carefully rocked the timing wheel to get the print wheels to mesh with the driving gear at this position.
Removing the home-made tool was the last step before I covered the wheel and print clutch mechanisms with a plate that hides it from the operator.
The right side and top plates are all in place, but I am not finished covering the left side. The plates for that were still a bit dirty, so I moved them to the bench where I will clean them off before attaching them in the next work session.
HAND ROTATION OF PRINT MECHANISM TO ENSURE NO OBSTRUCTIONS EXIST
As my last sanity check, I spun the print mechanism by hand to ensure that no columns were being triggered inadvertently. All print cams did remain at the rest position. Most of the remaining work will be cosmetic, things like the remaining covers, the top and all the doors.
REATTACHING THE BACK COVER WITH USAGE METER
I bolted the back high cover onto the machine - it had to be removed to use the board to slide the carriage in and out. The printer is looking more and more like the complete product.
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