Impact mechanism for impact printer

An impact mechanism is an impact printer, for delivering a printing force to drive a character element against a platen by means of a print tip normally spaced from the surface of said platen by a throat distance and movable toward and away from said platen, said character element and said print tip being supported upon a carriage mounted upon said printer for reciprocating movement in a path substantially parallel to the axis of said platen, including

• a rockable bail bar having an axis of rotation substantially parallel to the axis of said platen, and constrained to limited angular movement toward and away from said platen,
• a prime mover connected to bail bar for imparting the rocking movement thereto,
• a push rod for interconnecting said print tip and said bail bar so as to close said throat distance for delivering an impact force to said platen as said bail bar is moved toward said platen, and
• decoupling means supported upon said carriage and associated with said push rod for decoupling it from and recoupling it to said bail bar, said decoupling means comprising a pivotable lever including a handle portion and a camming surface, and said push rod including a cam follower cooperable with said camming surface.