Sometimes I've had luck lubricating all of the strainer parts with graphite spray. If you adjust the knob will it work at ANY tension? Or just tensions that don't sound good enough?

the strainer will not keep the snares tight even at minimum tension

Hard to tell without seeing it myself. Maybe someone else has had experience with these strainers. I think my Olympic has a different one. I'm at work so I can't be sure.

My ajax snare has a similar throw and I had similar problems. I think I threw the lever off, then turned the screw. Then when I pushed the lever back I could feel the resistance because of the tension I already applied. It would work if all the screw turning was performed with the snares off is what I'm saying!

It's in lovely condition by the way!

Ok, I fixed the darn thing! Really looks obvious to me now. What the problem was is that the strainer lever was bent towards the adjustment knob which would not let the strainer linkage get all the way into a vertical position. This linkage needs to be vertical in order to hold the strainer in the on/up position. In the pics you will see the linkage that I am talking about. In the 1st pic of the back of the strainer, you see the linkage part with the 2 pins in it, that has to be at least vertical to hold it in the up position. Pic 2, shows the less than vertical position, which will not work! ( I already bent the lever) I thought this may help some of you if you ever run into this problem.

I have one of those drums, along with the Hi-Fi (same strainers). I did the same thing as yourself, did the trick. (i've retro fitted a modern strainer since)

great drums, very rare, the full kit is even rarer. short lived run of build circa 76/77. never sell mine :cool:

Thanks for the info!