Configuration of the Controls on a Columbia Grafonola

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JoeNewberry
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Configuration of the Controls on a Columbia Grafonola

Post by JoeNewberry »

I have a Columbia Grafonola, at least I think it is, but that's a topic for another post. About 10 years ago I disassembled it without taking pictures of the work, and I was never able to get the Start and Speed controls back together exactly right. I put them together well enough that they sort of worked, but the Start button often doesn't stop the motor and it usually won't actually start unwinding until I turn the speed control all the way up to Fast. The speed control itself is never consistent, allowing the motor to speed up and slow down at random. Since I'm in the midst of a cleaning and regreasing, I figure it's a good time to finally try to resolve this problem. There are a small number of parts involved, and you'd think the limited number of variations would lead to an obvious solution after a little bit of trial and error, but I'm still stumped on the right way to put these pieces together. The parts involved are:

* "Stop plate" that the Start lever's spring loaded arm is supposed to press against
* Arm with felt pads that's supposed to press against the governor disc
* Speed lever with set screw in the middle and bent arm on the end
* A washer that will fit inside either the speed lever or the arm with the felt pads
* A screw with a slightly fat section at the top that fits perfectly into the lever or the pad arm

I've uploaded several pictures of the parts and the section of the motor where they go to this gallery:

http://img580.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=d ... ontrol.jpg

Here is one possible configuration I've tried, which doesn't seem to work:

http://img245.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=o ... uratio.jpg

If you think you can help me put this back together correctly I'd really appreciate it. If you need more pictures of any part, let me know and I'll be happy to oblige. Most configurations I've tried seem to make the speed control lever feel too loose, which makes me wonder if I'm missing a piece somewhere. That screw with the weird head is also a puzzle. The part of it that fits perfectly inside the lever or the felt arm is off center, so it's like the screw has to be put in a particular position to work right.

Anyway, if anyone has this particular motor or a similar one, and can help me with this, that would be awesome.

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