[GreenKeys] Hello! And an ASR-32 Question

[Cory Heisterkamp]

Just wanted to introduce myself, I’ve been reading the archives with
anticipation and recently picked up an ASR-33, and just this weekend,
a model 32. I am completely new to the Teletype world, but have
similar mechanical and electrical interests in old phones, cars,
pre-1960 TV’s and other vacuum tube gear and find this stuff
interesting.

This 32-ASR is in very good shape, excepting the keys which I’ll give
the paste wax treatment this evening. Everything checked free and
clear when rotated by hand so I plugged the machine in, however it
seems to run continuously in place. The type drum jumps up slightly
and the ribbon advances and the main shaft just keeps spinning…over
and over and over with the sound of the machine cycling as though it
were printing. If a key is pressed, the distributor engages but won’t
stop spinning unless you find the magic key on the keyboard to halfway
tap to get it to stop. Mind you, it still doesn’t print a character,
it just keeps running in place.

On the LH side behind the platen I’ve located a coil that never seems
to pull in. If I manually pull it in the type cylinder jumps up,
prints, and advances a space. Repeated cycling of this cylinder seems
to yield a random string of O’s, T’s and M’s.

Also, and I don’t know if this is by design or not, but the 4 buttons
below the rotary dial are momentary and when pressed, appear to do
nothing. On the ’33 I know these keys “lock in” and you’ve got to put
it in local for action. Is this correct behavior?

Any ideas where I should start first?

Thanks guys,
Cory