Daunting Mainspring Cleaning

[De Soto Frank]

Sounds to me like the governor pivots are worn. This is not weights hitting.

[winsleydale]

Is it easy to get new ones?

[De Soto Frank]

Check with George Vollema, Wyatt's, or Ron Sitko...

[Marco Gilardetti]

I didn't get if the rattle increases with the turntable on, or if stays quite the same.

It seems it's coming from the gears in any case. Did you try to change the position of the governor? I don't know about this specific machine, but usually governors are held in place with a pair of eccentrics that can be moved left and right and also rotated on their axle. You could try to move the governor in one direction or the other to have the gears' teeth engaging in a different and perhaps less worn point. Maybe there's just too much backlash.

[zepafa]

Here's how I install & lube springs, for better or worse. For a new spring or a cleaned up old one that has been removed from the barrel, I begin to wind the spring into the barrel and stop after 2 or 3 turns. While holding the spring firmly in place with one hand, I smear a gob of grease into the barrel with a small spatula, then wind again for a few turns, then some grease, etc., etc.

If I haven't removed & cleaned the spring, I squirt penetrating oil over the tightly wound layers of spring, then fill the center with new grease. The penetrating oil seeps in and tends to melt the old dried grease that has things gummed up. After reassembling the motor, I wind it once, to the end, causing the new grease to get distributed throughout.

That sounds like a lot of grease. I'm struggling to get my mainspring working properly. When I bought it the grease was dry and caked on. I cleaned it and it ran smoothly. Stupidly I decided to clean it some more, then it stopped working. Now I'm applying grease and it seems to work fine until I put the reproducer on to the cylinder. This slows it to a virtual stop. Does the spring just need more grease or does it sound more serious? How much grease should be applied?

[EdiBrunsVic]

I suggest that you contact Ron Sitko for help.

[Mr Grumpy]

Zepafa,

Not enough or too much grease on your mainspring shouldn't effect the speed regulation of the motor that much.
Unless you've put grease on the rest of the motor? I usually only grease the mainspring and maybe the ratcheting
gear (I made up that term I think, it's the gear connected to the crank), and I oil the rest.

Your problem sounds like the symptom of a governor that is out of adjustment or a motor that requires cleaning and oiling
because of gunk build up. Did you remove the governor? clean and oil?

[Lucius1958]

Everybody puts them in dry!? That explains the hell-on-earth I went through with the VV 8-12...

I could have used that information before I worked on the BC-34...

Bill

[ambrola]

All I can say is you are a hell of a man if you put greasy springs in. It took all I had to put them in dry. It sounds like you need new governor weights to me.

[winsleydale]

All I can say is you are a hell of a man if you put greasy springs in. It took all I had to put them in dry. It sounds like you need new governor weights to me.

Oh, I didn't feel like a hell of a man.