When we first dragged the typewriter in from the curb, we could hear the bell ring now and then when we played with the typewriter. On our typewriter, there is a soft bell that *dings* when you are about five spaces from the end of the line to alert you that you are about to hit the right margin.
After I blew out the dust and debris and cleaned it up with denatured alcohol, the margin bell stopped ringing all together. I was worried that I had broken something (spring?) in my cleaning.
I removed the top “hood” that protects the margin area:
It pops right off
I popped off the back and checked the bell:
The bell is on the right of this picture – it has such a soft, pleasant *ding*
I cleaned all the inner workings with denatured alcohol (being careful not to get it on the painted surfaces), paying special attention to a little wiggly pawl that hangs down and trips the bell when the carriage is within five spaces of the right margin.
The pawl was a little stiff with goo, but I got it to wiggle freely by painting it carefully with denatured alcohol. And guess what? The margin bell began to *ding*.
Once the little pawl was moving freely, the bell began to *ding* as it should.
myoldtypewriter 
I will need to try fixing the bell on my Remington Rand I acquired a few weeks ago. Only thing so far I see needs fixing. Will try cleaning with denatured alcohol and blowing the dust out also. So excited I found your blog thanks to the internet.
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The bell on my Remington KMC just needed a little cleaning – it was dirty and gummy and worked great after cleaning with denatured alcohol. You can use mineral spirits for cleaning as well – it’s not as dangerous to use around painted surfaces as denatured alcohol which will eat through paint in seconds (at least the formulation of denatured alcohol that I have which I suspect has acetone in it.)
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Oh wow thanks. I was looking into the denatured alcohol. Will purchase the mineral spirits instead. And so great the link for the typewriter manuals! I was wondering what a self starter key was and the “touch regulator” so neat.
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