Replaced rotate and tilt tapes on System Source Museum 1053 console

CONSOLE PRINTER FROM SSM'S 1130 BROKE ITS TAPES

I received the console printer (1053, a Selectric mechanism driven by the computer) as the rotate and tilt tapes had broken when it was being used at their museum. I have new tapes which I am installing before adjusting the typewriter for proper typing behavior. 

INSTALLING THE ROTATE TAPE

This metal band will cause the typeball to spin, selecting which hemisphere (upper or lower case side) as well as which of the eleven columns on a side is to be printed. It is anchored to the moving carrier on the right side, runs through the frame on the right around a pulley on a lever arm, then passes underneath the carrier to the left side of the frame where it again passes over a pulley before it enters the carrier on the left side. 

We begin by inserting an eyehook on one side of the tape into the right of the carrier where a vertical screw holds it in place. The tape is threaded back and forth until it is ready to be inserted in the left side of the carrier. 

The rotate tape is wound around a drum which has spring tension keeping the metal band taut. As the pulley on the left side moves it selects one of the eleven columns, and the lever on the right chooses one hemisphere or the other. 

The typeball is rotated by hand four turns plus a bit to wind up the spring of the drum. The other end of the rotate tape has a T shaped end which is placed into a slot on the drum. The drum is then allowed to turn, releasing spring tension and pulling on the rotate tape until all slack is removed from the tape. 

Sounds easy? It isn't. You need one hand carefully maintaining tension at all times on the tape, a second hand to hold the typeball and turn it gently, and a third hand to release and reactivate the detent. The tape tries very hard to jump off the drum it is winding on, instead wrapping around the axle. 

INSTALLING THE TILT TAPE

The tilt tape also has an eyehook end which is attached to the same screw that holds the rotate tape on the right side of the carrier. It is all too easy to have the rotate tape eyehook slip off while you are trying to add the tilt tape eyehook. The tape is then routed over a pulley on the right side of the frame, back under the carrier to the left side of the frame where it goes over a pulley on a lever that can move to select one of four rows of type around the typeball from top to bottom. 

The other end of the tilt tape has an eyehook which passes into the left side of the carrier and is placed into a plastic rotary piece that is linked to the tilt gear of the typeball. That rotary piece is pulled by a spring, with the tilt tape pulled taut. As the lever on the left side moves outward, it pulls the rotary piece around against the spring tension to tilt the typeball to the chosen row of characters. 

This tape is less challenging to install, but does still need three hands or more at certain points in the process. Threading it below the carrier was the hardest part but eventually I had to routed over the tilt actuating lever and back into the carrier for attachment to the pully for the tilt gear.