deskthority

Recently bought my first IBM Model F keyboard from ebay.

Worked great with a soarers converter that was included. It was filthy, so I removed the key caps to clean them. Also took off the back, wire coil, etc. Did not take apart the main switch plate. Foam is in great shape.

Upon reassembly, I noticed the enter key did not work. The enter spring looks straight and is not bent but is at a different angle than the rest. The flipper does not activate by pressing it. There is no clicking at all. There is the same issue with the number pad + key as well, the spring is sitting in the middle of the barrel, and there is no click. All other keys work fine.

Any ideas? Do I need to totally take it apart to fix something internally? Hard to believe something just broke by taking off a key cap.

Having broken anything seems unlikely, but I've had a flipper get caught during transport before (at least on Model Ms) - something similar could have happened here. Usually, a bit of jiggling with a slender (but not sharp or pointy) object helps it back into place.

I ended up taking the plates apart. They came apart easily, luckily.

Found the issue immediately. Both those key caps had a drop of water underneath that dropped onto the PCB and "glued" the flippers down when I snapped them back on. Problem solved! Now I can clean everything really well now that is apart, at least.

It's worth noting that it's not the end of the world if flippers are trapped when everything is back together. You can use tweezers on the paddle to nudge it so it isn't trapped under the barrel.