I should know by now that simple things are never really simple. Take, for example, a fine electric Smith-Corona Automatic 12. It came to the shop with a disconnected draw cord. Well, that is pretty simple; just reconnect it to the carriage and re-tension the spring drum . . . done!
HA!
Take a look at the photos, the original spring drum is on the left and the replacement from a donor machine on the right. How many times has that spring on the left broken?
FOUR. Typically a spring breaks either at the hub connection point or at the outer drum. When that happens, it really is pretty easy to reconnect the ends put it all back together and away we go.
No way I’m giving a customer back a machine with a spring that looks like Hells high water had its way. With a spring like the one on the left, it is way past fooling with. I’m grateful I have donor machines.