“Leisure Suit Larry”

198x Smith Corona Coronet Super 12 #6LEF 502035 M

To take apart a Coronamatic cartridge so the internal bits don’t fly everywhere, start at the front side of the cartridge (faces the platen when loaded). 1) Pry open the top carefully. it will be difficult to get the tabs open the first time, but much easier later. The plastic is not brittle, like many old plastics can be, so I haven’t busted a tab yet despite doing this about 10 times now while learning about the cartridge. DO NOT POP IT ALL THE WAY OPEN YET! HOLD IT CLOSED UNTIL STEP 3! 2) Turn the cartridge around while still holding it closed, and pop the two tabs on the other side. STILL DO NOT LET THE CARTRIDGE OPEN! 3) Flip the cartridge over so it is top-side up. 4) now you can set it down and take the top off. If you do it upside-down, all this stuff falls out on the floor. Now this is where the carbon ribbons and the fabric ribbons differ. The carbon ribbons are on spools and the fabric ribbon is a continuous loop that’s unspooled loosely inside the cart. I’ll show a Fabric ribbon in next post.
5) Since this is a carbon ribbon I’m fixing, I pull out the takeup spool and mark what direction it turns. Then cut out all the used ribbon so I can splice the spool back onto the ribbon. 6) A little scotch tape will do it. Doesn’t matter that the leader is mangled, it winds into the takeup spool anyway. 7) ensure that the feed spool is positioned and the ribbon is threaded like so. 8) ready the take-up spool. it feeds *above* the feed spool path, and the feed path should be like so. Note that the used ribbon is pulled by the white pinch roller. The grey gear is just an unpowered roller. No idea why it has gear teeth. They don’t connect to anything. 9) Slot in the takeup reel and take up the excess ribbon by winding the direction you’ve marked. The takeup reel is driven by the gear poking out the bottom of the ribbon shell. 10) Snap the top cover back on and you’re all done!