polly portable parts and repair advice needed

[gramophoneshane]

Normally these springs will have a pear-eye hole in the end, which passes over a kind of flat headed rivet protruding from the arbor, which catches the spring & secures it in place. Usually, if you rotate the arbor/gear in the opposite direction to how the spring is wound up by the arbor, the spring will release itself from the rivet.
This can be a little bit tricky at times, particularly if the inner coils of the spring are tight around the arbor, but I haven't found one yet that wont release this way with some patience. It can sometimes help to give the arbor a bit of a wiggle now and then while rotating the arbor backwards, and you might have to turn the arbor 2 or 3 full rotations to get it to release, but eventually it will come out.
Normally, springs that do not use a pear-eye hole, like those found in some Victor machine & late Paillard motors etc, will have a shaped centre or sleeve, and the arbor will simply pull straight out from the spring & barrel.
I'm fairly certain your spring will have a pear-eye hole though.

[anchorman]

so I got the barrel open. I cut two pieces of plywood roughly the right radius and gripped it in a woodworking vise between them. tap tap either side with a screwdriver and a mallet and the job was done.

now that I am inside, it looks like the spring is riveted in place to the barrel. the center arbor was attached with a sliding pin through it that had a big head on one side and none on the other. almost like a nail cut short. the head catches on the teardrop shaped hole in the inside end of the mainspring. the nail/pin would have prevented the center arbor from coming out either top or bottom of the barrel regardless of how I tried to get it out. glad I tried the other method (gripping it in a vise between plywood cutouts) first!

any thoughts on removing the spring from the inside of the barrel safely? or should I try to clean it in place?

[anchorman]

so, somehow without letting the spring go everywhere (got a friend and some extra hands), I got it out. it has a similar teardrop shaped hole on the outside end as well as the inside. now I need to pick suitable oil/grease, and repack the thing.

I have been reading that a lot of clock repair people use some lube from slick 50 (now quaker state) called "one lube". this stuff is supposed to have a high PTFE (teflon) content, and keep from getting sticky between the leaves. I just wonder how well something like that would protect against rust?

my first inclination is to wipe a thin coat of mobil 1 75w90 synthetic gear lube on the spring. second thought it to use the straight PTFE spray. I can't seem to find the can of slick 50 one lube anywhere around here.

will also start a new post regarding mainspring lube if I can't find any useful info in a search.

[alang]

Glad that you got your spring barrel opened.
You should find plenty of discussions on this forum regarding main spring grease. An original formula from Edison was a mixture of graphite flakes and vaseline, that's the ugly black stuff you find in most old phonographs. A modern replacement that many have used successfully is white lithium grease. I'm afraid that the thinner and more liquid lubes you mentioned might not hold very long.
Good luck!
Andreas

[anchorman]

spring has been lubed for now, but I may be unhappy long term says the CW on this board. tried using lithium spray grease applied liberally. if that doesn't work out, it is pretty easy to get inside the barrel again and do it with the thicker stuff, either mobil 1 or some moly grease.

found a guy who promptly got back with me about the governor springs, john nagy from phonographs.org. I sent him a drawing of what I had, and he sent me pictures back same day with some specs of the closest springs he had. same weights, but slightly shorter springs, also ever so slightly wider. hopefully this won't be a problem. I can adjust the collar on the governor shaft that holds the fixed end of the springs to the shaft to compensate for length.

should know in a few days if this works!