Kluge Throwoff Problem

I have an issue with my Kluge 12x18. For the most part I’ve gotten pretty good at troubleshooting, but I’m stuck right now and looking for any ideas.

If I have the air lever off, everything is running great. When I turn on the air, the throwoff lever goes back and the press engages (sorry if my terminology is wrong), even if it hasn’t picked up any paper. It’s not 100% consistent - if I let it go, every few times it’ll operate as it should - not making an impression, but then the next time it will again. As soon as I turn off the air lever, everything is again as it should be.

I checked everything in the pickup lines - that’s all fine (at least back to the upper ‘head’ unit) and the vacuum seems to be working properly.

For blind impressions it’s no big deal, but with ink, it’s constantly putting ink on the tympan which is a big deal especially since I’m running crazy expensive lettra 220.

Any ideas? I’ve run several jobs in the last few weeks (one with 16k impressions) and everything ran perfectly. I’m good with oiling the press and I was just extra thorough making sure I didn’t miss anything, as I know that can sometimes cause strange problems.

Also, I checked the throwoff weights (there are two on my press) and both are solid and haven’t moved in many years.

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Check for a missing spring near the vacuum bellow is located

I don’t see anywhere that a spring is missing. Vacuum bellow meaning the vacuum pump? Nothing looks amiss anywhere that I can see.

I think I solved the problem. I read through the manual again and found this toward the back:

“As your press is used over a period of time the throw-off may not operate efficiently because oil has been allowed to accumulate with the dirt and congeal in the plunger. If this is so, then remove the hose which connects the feeding arm post with the feeding arm and shoot kerosene into the feeding arm post. This kerosene will run down the post and into the plunger and as a result clean out the plunger. It must be remembered that kerosene is the agent to be used for this cleaning operation.”

So, I picked up a can and a gallon of kerosene and did exactly that. A few minutes later, I put the hose back on the feeding arm and ran the press - ran flawlessly.

excellent. as I was told once “when you hear hoof-beats - think horses not zebras” . fyi.a spring should be located near where the diaphragm is.