The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi Everyone,

I ran across an Amberola A-VI with 36 cylinder records for a good price so I picked it up. I wanted to see if it works before completely cleaning the motor so I did some light oiling and fixing and got it working. I listened to multiple records last night and again this morning and it sounds really good.

That is until I went to show my daughter and the mainspring broke. So I pulled it apart and found the mainspring had broken previously and someone jury rigged it by drilling a hole through both the shaft and through the mainspring, then they installed a bolt through both. The head of the bolt snapped off when I was winding it.

Here are my questions. 1) Can a new mainspring be purchased for an A-VI and if so, where? 2) Where might I find an original shaft? When the hole was drilled for the previous fix, they also ground off the spring hook.

Thanks!

Ron Sitko can certainly supply the spring, but I'm not sure about the shaft. You could try George Vollema for that, or any of the other suppliers listed in the Links section of the board.

The Amberola A-VI's are generally known to have very noisy motors. When yours was running I'm curious whether your motor was producing excessive noise (almost like a miniature chainsaw!). I have an Amberola A-VI which, amazingly, produces acceptable motor noise unlike most of the Amberola A-VI's. I don't have any parts to help you, unfortunately, but the suggestion above is useful. And you might try posting a Want ad in the Yankee Trader here as well.

Doug

Along with an ad in the Classified section, (as suggested above), post a photo of the bad shaft as well. Lots of us have boxes of parts, but are not always sure of what they came from. A visual aid sometimes helps. Plus, a photo may suggest how yours may yet be repaired.

Hi Doug and JerryVan. I saw the posts about noisy A-VI motors and I would say this one is acceptable.

One thing I noticed. When I was testing it, I had removed the two screws at the front of the speaker and the wood support block at the back of the speaker. When I reinstalled both the screws and the wood block, the motor was definitely louder. So when I get this working again, I will experiment with some foam pads or something similar to keep the noise down.

I'm attaching pics of the shaft. It's about 4 inches long. A little hard to tell with the large gear in place. Maybe a new hook or nipple (sorry, don't know the technical term) could be installed in the shaft?

You might also check to make sure your crank shaft is not pushing on the sides of the escutcheon hole. I had a machine that did this and the whole cabinet acted like a sounding board, amplifying the motor noise. Adjusting the motor mechanism position helped with that problem.
Bob

There's really nothing wrong with the shaft itself. The problem is that the pin/rivet is missing. Here's what it should look like and how it's installed. A close fit with the hole, then peened over slightly to retain it.

Here's another style...

Fish wrote:Hi Doug and JerryVan. I saw the posts about noisy A-VI motors and I would say this one is acceptable.

One thing I noticed. When I was testing it, I had removed the two screws at the front of the speaker and the wood support block at the back of the speaker. When I reinstalled both the screws and the wood block, the motor was definitely louder. So when I get this working again, I will experiment with some foam pads or something similar to keep the noise down.

I'm attaching pics of the shaft. It's about 4 inches long. A little hard to tell with the large gear in place. Maybe a new hook or nipple (sorry, don't know the technical term) could be installed in the shaft?

That’s a horn, not a “speaker”. ‘Speaker’ implies electricity.

Thanks JohnM. I guess I knew it is a horn but for some reason used speaker.

And thanks for the drawings JerryVan. I assume that rivet can be bought somewhere? I'll check the links on here as well.