We’ve been having an issue at MSU with the paper releasing at the end of the bed of a Vandercook No. 4. I had talked to you about this briefly at Hamilton, but I took some photos and it looks like there is a large shim and was wondering if this is normal. I feel like ours looks very different than the ones I saw at Hamilton but maybe I am mistaken. It also looks like it is damaged from this shim protruding out so much. As if the smaller roller on the release bar is trying hard to get over this hump, damaging the wedge. We have added some tape onto this wedge to eventually allow the grippers to release the paper at the end of the bed but wondering if something else is an issue.
Part of the problem is the angle of the roller brack at the bottom of the gripper trip level.
Review the drawing in my previous comment the loosen the bolt to correct.
Your last photo of the gripper trip lever shows that the push has backed out of the cylinder.
I unscrewed the unit that the trip bar is connected to from the cylinder and surprisingly the trip bar doesn’t look like it has much wear unless it was flipped around. Attached is an image of the trip bar. Also I’ve attached images of the carriage as it goes down the bed of the press. It looks like the gripper trip lever is at an angle and wondering if it is too much of an angle it makes sense as to why this is causing damage to the gripper wedge. If I adjust this screw to protrude out more I suppose I will have even more of a gripper release issue? When I push down on the gripper lever at the feed board end the grippers are actually very responsive immediately but just will not release the paper once upon the gripper trip wedge at the other end of the press.
What you call a shim is called the MS -7 Gripper Trip Wedge in the manual (Sheet 107). It is removable on most No. 4.
The damage is likely due to an adjustment of the set screw on Gripper Trip Lever on the carriage to compensate for wear on the MS-101 Trip Bar on the gripper bar where it contacts the push rod. This adjustment would force the cam follower at the bottom of the gripper trip lever to be closer to the carriage and thus hit the damaged MS -7 Gripper Trip Wedge too hard.