IBM Selectric II Repair 2017

That typewriter reminds me of when my grandmother used to dictate from home via tapes that doctors would give her. When me and my brothers stayed with them for a day or so, I remember she had her headphones on and would type for hours as my retired grandfather proofread her work. At the end of the day they watched Bonanza on my grandfathers VCR which was recorded from earlier that day!

I just showed this IBM video to my spouse who was extremely excited to see one again. I remember finding one years ago and gave it to her. She was in pure heaven.

You did a good job with that repair. I worked on those machines from 1961 when they came out until the time they stopped making them in about 1981. A light grease should be applied to the motor shaft on reassembly. If you keep using that machine the belt will break. Even after repairing hundreds of those machines for over thirty years I still hated to change those belts.

Memories :) I was a service tech on IBM golfballs from 1972, when I was appreciated for being skilled at repairs, these days it's an easy fix or replace on modern machines!

Love this! I completely tore a Selectric II correcting machine apart and repaired it a few years back. I gained confidence doing the same on a Teletype ASR33! Fortunately, there is lots of help out there on both. I just brought the repaired unit up, and other than a sticky auro-repeat and TAB key, it worked fine after typing a few lines. There is another identical unit next to it waiting for restoration. I also found a dozen type balls in both pitches plus a box of new ribbons and correction tape. Ready to write that novel. Thanks for the inspiration. Amazing machine, iconic, along with the Western Electric 302 and 500 dial telephones and Graflex press cameras.

Today must be maintenance day! I dismantled my 13 year old HP LaserJet to fix the duplexer. It only needed a bit of tape to stop a lever sticking to a solenoid, but it required almost complete disassembly. What fun! Thanks for another interesting video.

Thanks Fran. That belt is really cracked. When you have time change it . The new ones that fit are Kevlar (last forever) belts.

I can't t believe it. My typewriter wore out at work in 1983 and I got one of these BRAND NEW! That auto erase feature was revolutionary for the time. Man I loved that typewriter. Love your videos too... you just keep choosing stuff that the geek in me totally digs.

That machine is a work of art.

Reporting from 6 years in the future! I love it when Youtube decides to drum up some of your old content!

As with quite a few other commenters here, I too started my IBM career in 1983 as an Office Products Customer Engineer fixing Selectrics - working in the City of London. The IBM training course to fix these machines was six weeks long and quite intensive. Unbelievably, in London alone there were tens of thousands of these typewriters in use at the time, but things changed very quickly. The IBM Displaywriter (a primitive word processor) and PC were already on the scene, even though the big computer revolution had yet to happen. A few years later it did and all of the mechanical office machines disappeared. Nonetheless, the Selectric was an amazing piece of mechanical engineering and typists loved the feel of typing on it. A properly set up Selectric also produced great print quality. It was quite strange watching this video and seeing the cover come off revealing the insides of a Selectric. At one time in my life this was all I did. Those were the days.

The "clutch" as you call it is not for soft start so the mechanism doesn't get hammered on...it is there because the motor is an induction motor and has no starting torque, so the speed catch allows the motor to start with no torque and then when up to speed the speed catch engages and sort of hammers the main shaft on...also the holes in the Mylar sheet are there to hold lubricant, not meant to be run dry and is a retrofit repair part to compensate for wear, not installed from the factory...and yes I repaired office equipment for over 35 years if anyone is wondering how I know this. I will admit you do what most people cannot but you don't seem to be as inclined mechanically as you do in other areas...I very much enjoy ALL your videos.

My dad used to type over 70 wpm on his Selectric! Now it is gathering dust in his office; I might take it and use it as a curio in my living room ;).

IBM Selectric II is how i first found your chanel glad i did

In the 70s, I worked in engineering at a large company. We had lots of the Selectric typewriters in our offices and I was always very impressed with what a truly great machine they were/are.

My high school used that exact same model when I took typing class in 1983. Thing was as heavy as a boat anchor.

Lovely to see your videos again. I hope you'll have time and inspiration to make some more.

I just found a Selectric II! Looking forward to these.

I love that the Selectric looks so modern with its stylish case enclosing the works, but once the cover comes off it looks much like any small portable typewriter from the early 50s. My wife's uncle retired from IBM, after spending many years repairing Selectrics I and II. Maybe not so oddly, once he retired he almost never spoke of IBM machines or IBM itself again. I was familiar with the end-of-the-line 70s era IM Selectric Composer, the Selectric that had an analog system of dial recording allowing the operator to create right-justified type on a second typing. It was pre-PC, of course.

Thank you for making this! Just bought one of these guys at a Goodwill and I don't have any experience with them. This helped a ton!