Question about Amberola V

[phonojim]

I finally finished overhauling the Amberola V that I bought at Stanton's in November. It is running very nicely now, but I have a comment and a question about the upper gear train. One thing I do know is that I need a new governor drive gear, or a good used one. The gear had cracked sometime in the past and was soldered back together and in place. It runs well, but is somewhat noisy, but "knocks" with each revolution of the mandrel. I have it adjusted so that it runs as quietly as possible and under load the knocking goes away, so gear replacement is not urgent.
The question is this: the enclosed photo shows a ring that is mounted on the mandrel shaft to the left of the gear assembly. This part came from that location when I did the teardown, but I can't see any purpose for it. The mechanism runs fine with it there, but it looks like it would run just as well without it. This is the first V I have worked on and I am not at all familiar with them compared to other Edison models. Can anyone tell me about this? If you have an Amberola V could you take a look under the cover and see if this belongs there? I'm just curious as to whether it belongs there or perhaps somewhere else.

Thanks,

Jim

[phonogfp]

Mine has the same thing...plus an incomplete balance spring I never noticed before. It plays like a champ, though, so I'm leaving it alone.

George P.

[phonojim]

George, Thanks so much for posting the picture. Now I know I did it correctly. I finished assembly and adjustment this afternoon and it runs very well, although it is noisier than it should be because of the bad brass governor gear. I'll have to talk to Ron Sitko about that. Now I need to redo the reproducer and I'll finally be able to enjoy it.

Jim

[Edisone]

After careful adjusting & replacement of missing balance spring, mine is so quiet that I must stick my head under the lid to hear it running. I don't see how George's can run properly with half a spring - it's only pushing the mandrel, with no ability to smooth the speed by retarding - I would also expect the spring to simply fall out, unless the intact end is incorrectly jammed-in by the retaining wire. The balance spring should be just long enough to fit UNDER the retaining wire, leaving it free to adjust itself to irregularities in speed. See attached pic for the WRONG way. Cut off the spring so it ends UNDER each side of the retainer; once you clamp each end of that little wire, its flexibility is reduced to nearly nothing.

( Note that the later Amberola 30/50/75 machines had balance springs totally free at each end, with no way to goof them up)

[phonogfp]

I can't explain it either, but it plays flawlessly, and has for the 10 or 12 years I've owned it.

I recently replaced a broken balance spring in an Amberola III, and it was like night and day.

George P.

[phonojim]

Interesting installation of that spring - not sure how they did it, however this just illustrates the difficulties encountered in the early days of collecting. No one knew where to go to look for parts or advice and people did the best they could. In the mid '50s, I broke a governor spring in a VV-IV and the machine was toast - no one knew where I could find such a thing. There were collectors out there and large stocks of parts stashed away, but unless you were in the loop or got lucky your machine just sat there.
My machine runs pretty quietly after spending a lot of time adjusting everything but the knock is still there because of the repair to the ring gear. However, the knock disappears when the stylus is lowered onto the record. Apparently that provides enough load to remove any gear lash present. I believe that problem will be solved with the installation of a new governor drive gear. That seems to be where all of the noise is coming from.
I installed a rebuilt diamond B since the first post, played several cylinders and am very pleased with the performance of the machine and. To me the V is the best sounding of the table model Amberolas and I'm very happy to have one.

Jim