Selectric Sorrows

I'm sorry that I have not blogged for almost a month - and that I am almost a month behind in reading other people's blogs.

It's not that I have had an exciting life - just busy with this-and-that, too much work and not enough time in which to do it.

Still, what I have had time to do is to extend my collection a little bit... with two Selectrics.  Sadly, neither of them work.

I think that the motor in both of them works.  They certainly fire up, and Selectric Correcting III has lovely lights that light up on the pitch scale.  

That's it on the right, looking all lovely and red.  Below you can see the other one - a Selectric II.  This one has a black case, which I have removed to tinker with.

I know almost nothing about them, but I do know enough to realise that the cords should be connected to the print/ribbon mechanism rather than merely resting on the keyboard!

The red one doesn't have dangling cables... instead it seems to be tightly wound around a cog inside.

As I mentioned above, I know almost nothing about Selectrics... but I do hope that someone out there in the typosphere might be able to point me in the right direction to get at least one of them working.

Is there anyone in the UK who can repair such a beast?  I've not managed to find one anywhere, despite searching on the Internet and looking though the Yellow Pages.

If I can get one repaired I already have a selection of golfball printheads to use, and several ribbons - enough to keep using it for years to come!