The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I would incline to think you need to extract and clean all the springs. The old grease clogs the springs and makes the motor loose power. I've replaced only the broken spring on a four spring motor and it worked like a champ. These old springs usually keep a good power, except in the case the motor has been stored for long time with the springs completely wound up... Try cleaning them and regreasing, clean all the motor gears and regrease them, and oil all bearings, especially the governor worm and the speed regulation pad that touches the governor sliding disc. Then, if the motor doesn't play through more than four 12" sides, you can tell it needs new springs.

It has been a while since I had the motor out of my Cortez, but I seem to remember that the brake was actually on the governor, not the turntable (as it is on the Seville).

Make sure that the governor pads are soaked with oil, by the way.

dzavracky wrote:I just wound my Cortez all the way up. Since my family went to bed, I couldn't play any records on it. But I timed how long the motor remained running. It spun for 23 minuets!!

Yes, but could it get through a gavotte? (Sorry, David, couldn't resist.)

Cheers!

It played 23 minuets? Wow that's pretty good! Was one of them Beethoven's minuet and one of them Paderewski's minuet? Rock on!

CharliePhono wrote:

dzavracky wrote:I just wound my Cortez all the way up. Since my family went to bed, I couldn't play any records on it. But I timed how long the motor remained running. It spun for 23 minuets!!

Yes, but could it get through a gavotte? (Sorry, David, couldn't resist.)

Cheers!

hahahaha! We could find out though


David