Ahha! So it is not a ratcheting device like I was thinking. It is a coiled spring tapped around the main shaft (in the picture the one on the right).
They're is a collar around the spring with a notch cut in it. The spring exits through this notch and attached to the little bar with two screws (far right).
The advance knob holds the shaft in place and I think someone had not reassembled it back together correctly. I had noticed it was loose. Because it was loose, the collar that held the spring in place had a gap, and the strong had worked out of the collar.
It was a pain to get it all back into place but it is done. The mechanism is now smooth as silk and I am putting the camera back together. Yay!