Has Anyone "listened" Their Way Out of Hardened Grease?

[JerryVan]

.... in cases where the springs work well!
I'm in the same line as Jeff. There's one of those big Burton motors (4 springs) that I've disassembled and reassembled many times, cleaning the springs and re-greasing. I've tested automotive oil, lithium grease with and without graphite flake, baseline with graphite, moly grease... Yet I've not got a perfectly running motor. I don't remember what is the latest thing I used... butt it works, unless you left the machine alone for some weeks and try to play again. Then the thumping is there. Only after some plays it seems to work well. But after some days quiet, the problem is there again.
I don't know what happens. I've surrendered. Simply I won't try anything more, until the day one spring will break.
Examining the springs, I've noticed that used springs develop a scratchy surface on the coils, and I blame that. News springs seen to have a certain tempered, oily surface, that is lost after some time of use. I don't know if it's that, or that my springs are of inadequate size (one of them at least) although they seem all equal to me.
Perhaps if I disassemble it again, clean thoroughly, examine the clean springs, etc (changing the ones I find odd).... But I'm tired. Maybe this summer I'll try it again.
Each time I reassembled it seemed to work that very day. But after some time, the thumping appears.

That's been my experience too. Over the past 40 years, I've had about a dozen Victor motors serviced/cleaned/re-greased by highly rated shops that other collectors recommended to me. In one case, the springs bumped after about a week and I returned the motor to the shop to try again, but they refused and sent it right back to me, demanding reimbursement for the return postage!!! (I never sent it, and never heard back from them.)

Even motors that have had new replacement springs--again, installed by shops that purported to specialize in this--have only worked properly for awhile, perhaps six months or so, before they started bumping again.

Now, when my 4-40's springs start bumping, I pull the motor, remove the barrel, put in a cap full of transmission fluid and "finger in" a small glob of molly grease through the hole, reassemble it, and it's normally good to go, bump-free, for about a year or two.

OrthoFan

... but all they are, are self taught.

Who amongst us here is not?

[gramophone-georg]

That's been my experience too. Over the past 40 years, I've had about a dozen Victor motors serviced/cleaned/re-greased by highly rated shops that other collectors recommended to me. In one case, the springs bumped after about a week and I returned the motor to the shop to try again, but they refused and sent it right back to me, demanding reimbursement for the return postage!!! (I never sent it, and never heard back from them.)

Even motors that have had new replacement springs--again, installed by shops that purported to specialize in this--have only worked properly for awhile, perhaps six months or so, before they started bumping again.

Now, when my 4-40's springs start bumping, I pull the motor, remove the barrel, put in a cap full of transmission fluid and "finger in" a small glob of molly grease through the hole, reassemble it, and it's normally good to go, bump-free, for about a year or two.

OrthoFan

... but all they are, are self taught.

Who amongst us here is not?

Really!
Anyone here been an apprentice for TAE or Victor?
That's what I thought!

[OrthoFan]

I can understand "self taught," although there were a few very old-timers still around when I started out in the hobby who claimed to have some firsthand knowledge working at repair shops. What I could never understand was why some of the repairmen would not stand behind their work, such as the person who refused to look into why the springs he had installed a few weeks earlier started bumping violently.
OF

[Menophanes]

Not everybody has the strength of wrist and finger to remove and replace a spring. Twenty years ago I could and did do this when necessary, even though my hands are the size of a twelve-year-old's; now, at 70, I dare not attempt it. I fully accept that the only ideal solution is to remove the spring[s] from the barrel, clean everything thoroughly and reassemble them with new lubricant, but I feel it is legitimate to explore techniques which do not involve risking broken bones, even though their effects are probably less complete and long-lasting.

Fortunately my H.M.V. 130 only suffers this problem towards the end of a twelve-inch side, probably at the point where the second spring begins to act. It is at its worst when the machine has not been used for a while (in this situation it can cause the needle to jump several grooves) and diminishes, though it does not entirely disappear, after a few sides; but in any event I find that if I give the crank half a dozen turns after about three minutes, the bumps do not occur.

Oliver Mundy.