Hi all! First time typewriter owner here. I'm reinstalling the carriage ball bearings on my Smith Corona Galaxie, serial number 6T-468631-29, manufactured between 1959 and 1962. (I think this is indeed a Smith Corona Galaxie 6T. The sticker is not only wrong but badly cut and pasted over the plastic. Idk what the previous owner(s) were thinking.)
Background: The carriage was jamming at almost consistent parts of the rack, so I sprayed compressed air and applied isopropyl alcohol along the racks while sliding the carriage back and forth. This apparently dissolved the old grease and dislodged all eight bearings — four per rack, arranged as two pairs per rack, one pair near each end with the middle of the rack empty (see diagram). Lesson learned.
I have all bearings and starwheels. There are two racks which these came from, four on each rack installed as pairs (left and right of the rack). See my hand drawn illustration. I'm using the straw trick from a Royal portable reinstallation video from Typewriter Chicago, adapted for this machine.
My questions:
1.) Looking at my diagram, this was how I saw the bearings before they went rogue. But now that Im reinstalling them, roughly how far from the ends of the rack should each pair of bearings be positioned? Flush against the end, or with a small gap? If anyone familiar with this machine could sketch the approximate position on a similar diagram, that would be incredibly helpful.
2.) Should the ball be lightly greased before assembling it together with the starwheel for insertion? And should the rack channel itself also get a light coat of grease?
3.) What type of grease is recommended? white lithium grease, or something else?
Thanks in advance!