Clutch mechanism

The clutch mechanism took me a long time to understand. I didn't know organs had a clutch. I couldn't understand how the idler wheel (the wheel between the take up spool and the crank mechanism) could spin and be disengaged from the crank mechanism. On top of that for a long time I didn't understand that the job of the clutch was to remove the idler wheel from the crank mechanism. To be honest I had no idea why it was there or what it did. These progress photo's really helped:

http://members.cox.net/felipe.mello/

Once I understood that the clutch was there so that you could rewind the organ I then realized that the axis of the idler wheel didn't move. This was a big realization. There is a handle which you push down to move the idler wheel and a spring to keep it in place while the organ plays.




I carefully drilled and screwed a tapping screw into the axis with a bearing. I had advice to keep the idler wheel a sloppy fit onto the axis so that it would always connect with the take up spool but with the bearing it is quite rigid.
This brass bar keeps the spring which holds the idler wheel in contact with the take up spool while the organ plays.