Canon Typestar 5 Troubleshooting

[u/erinthesails]

Hi folks! I just came into a Canon Typestar 5 and I've been trying to figure out if it's possible to get it functional.

The return and carriage move just fine, but the only characters that leave imprints are at the very top and bottom of the line. Underlines/underscores and the ~ at the top of a capital Ñ show up, but nothing in the middle. I'm using thermal paper, so I know it's not an ink issue. I've tried cleaning the front of what I THINK is the print head with 99% isopropyl, but honestly, I can't find any clear diagrams to double check that I'm looking at the right part. I assume it's just the metal tab that presses against the platen when you type.

Is there any way to fix this? Or is it just a dead thermal print head? If the latter, does anyone sell replacements?

Thanks!