The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The click is not engaging and holding properly on this Zonophone Grand Opera. It is slipping out of the teeth as can be seen here. I am holding the crank and slowly letting it unwind as I filmed this. It will engage eventually. I realize that the motor is dirty and have not cleaned it yet, and am assuming that if I get all that oil out of the click and teeth, that may prevent slippage. There is wear on the teeth and click, but not so much that it would cause this, I believe. Pushing the click into the teeth manually gets into to engage pretty firmly and deeply.
All that being said, I was wondering if there is supposed to be a spring on the click to help it engage into the teeth, or if this is all done be gravity.

I've seen that on Victor machines as well. The dirt prevents it from engaging quickly/deeply enough. A good cleaning and light oil lubrication will take care of this. No spring required, gravity does it all.

Andreas

Looks like it's just too dirty. It should also work better with the motor sitting horizontal, as when installed in the cabinet.

Heavy old grease on the winding ratchet makes it slip over the teeth. I did the same adviced herein: thorough cleaning and fresh greased, and it worked! But the winding action becomes noisier, as you hear the click click click of the ratchet while winding.
These were designed, as already said, by gravity, with the motor in the working position, and that's why they have that asymmetrical shape. So I point to the same: cleaning and soft grease on all the area will make it work. If you use fine oil instead of grease it will work better, but will be noisier...