Collaro A27 motor repair advice please

[poodling around]

I’ll go for mrrgstuff’s solution. I’ve tried it and it works. I also have no lathe!

If the whisk doesn’t work, a wire coat hanger, stripped of the plastic will. You might get away with the whisk to be fair as it’s a small motor.

I used a drill bit and a pair of mole grips and pliers. Use a bit just smaller than the shaft of the winding spindle.

I clamped one end of the wire to the drill bit, then held it vertically in a vice. Then start to wrap it round with a pair of pliers to keep it close to the bit. Eventually it’ll work, just make sure it’s long enough. Then, put the loop in to anchor it. It’s hard work and you have to try and be dexterous to move the pliers round without letting go, or it’ll not be an equal wind.

The most important part- ensure you wind it the correct way round, else it’ll do exact the opposite and not hold the wind! I found this out the hard way.

It will go on the shaft with a bit of fiddling.

Someone told me the action of wrapping the non- springy material round, in fact adds some spring when it’s done.

Thanks very much leels1.

Really great advice. I appreciate it very much.

[poodling around]

Okay, so last night I started work on the non-return spring .................. until about 1.30 in the morning !

The good news is that re-using the existing spring seems to have worked ! The odd thing was that re-shaping it was quite easy. The difficult thing was trying to get the securing screw to work. It just would not fit back in the hole. Then I remembered that a long time ago I bought a selection of old gramophone screws and one of those fitted perfectly !!! It is far too long but I intend to hack-saw it later so it fits under the motor board.

I assume that because there is now 'less spring' to grip the spindle that may be a problem ? Perhaps the more the main-spring is wound the greater the pressure on the non-return spring ? I am unsure. Maybe it would be wise not to wind the main-spring too much so the non-return spring is not under too much of a work-load ?

Anyway, hopefully this part of repairing one of my (very unusual) gramophones is going well. Next step, trying to repair a pot metal tone arm which has snapped in half (is this even possible ?) and finding the correct motor-board speed control for this Collaro motor - as this part is missing.

I attach four photo's - one of the broken part of the non-return spring with the screw which refused to go back in, the over-long replacement screw which needs a hack-saw, the 'reduced' non-return spring and finally, where it is attached.

Thanks everyone for your help. Happy days always !!!!

[Inigo]

I found it very useful, never thought of using the hand drill as a small lathe... it opens great possibilities...!

[poodling around]

So, having made the non-return spring functional again I moved on to the completely snapped and broken tone-arm.

What I did to repair it was to use a thin but strong plastic pipe and cut that and inserted it inside the tone-arm - giving internal support. I read a thread on here about using 'gorilla super glue gel' to repair pot metal parts. So I tried that - gluing the plastic tube on to the two parts of the tone-arm and then glueing the two actual tone-arm parts together.

For my purposes this has worked well - so far ! The tone-arm supports itself.

I understand that it doesn't look like new nor professionally done and that the sound travelling through the tone-arm will be different. I do like to keep things as original as possible though and I feel like the gramophone is slowly coming back to life.

Next thing is to find a speed control (I wonder which ones were sold with this motor?) and repair the turntable material.

Here are a few photos of the mess I made ! (Oh, the sound-box is temporarily reversed !).

[Lah Ca]

So, having made the non-return spring functional again I moved on to the completely snapped and broken tone-arm.

What I did to repair it was to use a thin but strong plastic pipe and cut that and inserted it inside the tone-arm - giving internal support. I read a thread on here about using 'gorilla super glue gel' to repair pot metal parts. So I tried that - gluing the plastic tube on to the two parts of the tone-arm and then glueing the two actual tone-arm parts together.

For my purposes this has worked well - so far ! The tone-arm supports itself.

I understand that it doesn't look like new nor professionally done and that the sound travelling through the tone-arm will be different. I do like to keep things as original as possible though and I feel like the gramophone is slowly coming back to life.

Next thing is to find a speed control (I wonder which ones were sold with this motor?) and repair the turntable material.

Here are a few photos of the mess I made ! (Oh, the sound-box is temporarily reversed !).

Quite ingenious! There is the proverb: Necessity is the mother of invention.

Perhaps you will eventually find an intact replacement arm. Here's hoping. Best of luck!

If the arm is stable now (that is it does not flex at the points of damage, crazy glue and sodium bicarbonate can be used as a filler to build up the damaged areas. It is strong but it does not suffer torsion or impact well. It is easier to work with than epoxy.

I have used it for cosmetic and light structural repairs on a number of things: plastic turntables, tolex on guitar amps and cases; guitar nuts and bridge saddles, laptops, smart phones, etc. French guitarist, Pierre Bensusan, uses it to strengthen the finger nails on his right hand so they do not wear down so quickly.

Put a small amount of the glue into the damaged areas. Then work in a generous amount of sodium bicarbonate with a tooth pick. The sodium bicarbonate acts like a catalyst and sets the glue almost immediately. It also seems to bulk up the glue so that it does not shrink so much. It can be sanded and cleaned up almost immediately, and additional layers can be applied to build the surface up quite quickly. It can be painted or coloured with felt pens.

If interested, please experiment on something else before attacking your tone arm in this manner.

[leels1]

Glad you sorted the spring!

Unfortunately with mine there wasn’t enough left to reuse the old one. It kept snapping and slipping.

[poodling around]

So, having made the non-return spring functional again I moved on to the completely snapped and broken tone-arm.

What I did to repair it was to use a thin but strong plastic pipe and cut that and inserted it inside the tone-arm - giving internal support. I read a thread on here about using 'gorilla super glue gel' to repair pot metal parts. So I tried that - gluing the plastic tube on to the two parts of the tone-arm and then glueing the two actual tone-arm parts together.

For my purposes this has worked well - so far ! The tone-arm supports itself.

I understand that it doesn't look like new nor professionally done and that the sound travelling through the tone-arm will be different. I do like to keep things as original as possible though and I feel like the gramophone is slowly coming back to life.

Next thing is to find a speed control (I wonder which ones were sold with this motor?) and repair the turntable material.

Here are a few photos of the mess I made ! (Oh, the sound-box is temporarily reversed !).

Quite ingenious! There is the proverb: Necessity is the mother of invention.

Perhaps you will eventually find an intact replacement arm. Here's hoping. Best of luck!

If the arm is stable now (that is it does not flex at the points of damage, crazy glue and sodium bicarbonate can be used as a filler to build up the damaged areas. It is strong but it does not suffer torsion or impact well. It is easier to work with than epoxy.

I have used it for cosmetic and light structural repairs on a number of things: plastic turntables, tolex on guitar amps and cases; guitar nuts and bridge saddles, laptops, smart phones, etc. French guitarist, Pierre Bensusan, uses it to strengthen the finger nails on his right hand so they do not wear down so quickly.

Put a small amount of the glue into the damaged areas. Then work in a generous amount of sodium bicarbonate with a tooth pick. The sodium bicarbonate acts like a catalyst and sets the glue almost immediately. It also seems to bulk up the glue so that it does not shrink so much. It can be sanded and cleaned up almost immediately, and additional layers can be applied to build the surface up quite quickly. It can be painted or coloured with felt pens.

If interested, please experiment on something else before attacking your tone arm in this manner.

Thank you Lah Ca ! I hope that the arm stays stable - if not I will try to adapt a copper pipe.

Very interesting advice regarding crazy glue and sodium bicarbonate. I may 'give that a go' !

I tried to clean the rexine incidentally but it 'lifted' a lot in a smallish area, so I made a bit of a mistake there. I wonder if I can use shoe polish - or otherwise I will just leave it for now.

Although this is a very unusual portable it didn't cost me much so I can afford to experiment a little.

[poodling around]

Glad you sorted the spring!

Unfortunately with mine there wasn’t enough left to reuse the old one. It kept snapping and slipping.

Thank you leels1 !

I am sorry that you could not re-use your non-return spring. You mentioned earlier in this thread that you may try to make a new one from a whisk or a coat hanger. I hope that was successful. By coincidence I was out and about a week or so ago and came across some wire coat hangers. So I bought them thinking that they may have a gramophone use one day !

I am careful not to wind this gramophone up too much incidentally, in case the now shorter non-return spring slips or breaks . I guess the more the main-spring is wound the more the non-return spring has to deal with more tension ?

[Curt A]

A brass or copper tubing "sleeve" slid over the tonearm repair area would add further strength and improve the appearance of the break.

Hopefully, you will find a replacement tonearm, even if it has to be adapted from another brand of machine... If you can find a similar length complete tonearm, reproducer and importantly, the original cabinet mounting piece, you could swap it out and it will appear to be correct. Obviously, a brass tonearm would be preferable and solve the pot metal issue for good.

Curt

[poodling around]

A brass or copper tubing "sleeve" slid over the tonearm repair area would add further strength and improve the appearance of the break.

Hopefully, you will find a replacement tonearm, even if it has to be adapted from another brand of machine... If you can find a similar length complete tonearm, reproducer and importantly, the original cabinet mounting piece, you could swap it out and it will appear to be correct. Obviously, a brass tonearm would be preferable and solve the pot metal issue for good.

Curt

Thanks Curt A !

Some-what oddly, I hadn't even thought of adding an external copper 'sleeve' ! What a great idea ! I will do that for sure ! More glue required !

The tracking (I think it is called) of the tone-arm is terrible by the way. The needle ends up so far away from the turntable spindle - far too short. I understand this isn't unusual for early gramophones though.