The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

muffinass wrote:

alang wrote:I found that they have the Gojo "Cream" style cleaner at Autozone, but I usually just use GooP which you can get at Walmart or Harbor Freight in the automotive department. GoJo and GooP are pretty much the same, just different brand names.
Andreas

My problem is that they don't carry them in Canada. I'll go to Walmart today and see if they have either of them.

In case they don't, what generic cleaner should I look for?

1926CredenzaOwner wrote:LOL! My Victor 9 was the test subject for my abilities as well!

muffinass wrote:How do the tone-arms without it support themselves? Is there a groove within the arm that won't let it twist all the way back?

Well, I needed to do this myself... and I had a few hours to kill this morning.

The tone arm is held into place by five ball bearings that ride in groove on the tone arm. (see A and B) These ball bearings are very small, and hard to replace if you loose them. (I work over a large mixing bowl while disassembling everything so there's a 'catch-all.') They are held in place by that washer that fig.B is located inside. The other ring is what goes back into the tone arm after you've greased and reseated the ball bearings and tone arm.

Make sure you clean all the old grease off everything.
Be liberal with your grease when repacking. Put grease on everything: the bearings, the washer, the tone arm base, the collar the screws go into. When you put it back together, what is not needed will squeeze out. Better too much than too little. I used a mixture of moly-lithium grease and graphite to repack. Then I lubricated with some gear oil.

While you're doing this, you'll want to go ahead and clean your tone arm and crook. Remove the stem for the auto-brake, and the stop for the crook and all its screws. Take all the gold plated parts, and clean them with the toothpaste method I described earlier. Again, liberally pack the graphite grease mixture in the collar that controls the freedom of the crook and add some gear oil. (Gah! I should have mentioned this earlier. Some people call the crook a "goose neck." Whatever floats your boat....) Put everything back together on the tone arm itself, and adjust the movement of the crook. It should be tight, but not so tight that it doesn't move freely. Just tight enough to move freely up and down without wobbling back and forth.


I don't have a pic for this section, because it's a two-handed operation.

Everything sould be greased and ready to go by this point. Place the tone arm back in the base while holding the base in your left hand, upside down of course. Place the washer back in and move the base of the tone arm up slightly where you can re-seat the bearings back in their groove. Take the larger ring and put it back into place. You need to pay attention here, because the screw holes in that ring aren't centered. They are slightly more to one side than the other. You want to put that ring in so they are further away from the tone arm.

After you've done all this, and have carefully made sure the arm is freely moving, put those three screws back in to hold it all in place. I take the leftover grease I have and apply the rest to the underside to make sure there's an air-tight seal. I also put a little more gear oil in the space where the base of the tone arm and the top of the base meet. Work it in by moving the tone arm back and forth, and wipe off the excess.

This is also a good time to grease that felt washer under the tone arm base. Just remove it, liberally grease it, and put it back in.
(That silver colored plate just comes right off. Sorry for not removing it for the pic.)

Put your tone arm back on, adjust the stem for the auto brake... and you're done!
(Took me about an hour to do and I smoked a few cigarettes and had my coffee at the same time, so I lollygagged a bit.)

muffinass wrote:Finally, can anyone give me any tips for transporting the machine? Is there anything else besides the platter and reproducer that I should remove? I'll be putting it in a station-wagon flat on its back.

I'd remove the crank, the turn table, the reproducer, and the whole tone arm. Bring several Ziplock bags for all loose stuff, and a towel to wrap the tone arm in. If you're laying it flat, make sure the lid doesn't come open. Try not to lift the machine by the feet while loading it. They seem to be brittle.

If anybody has any corrections or additions, tricks or hints... or if I did anything wrong, please chime in here. I learned all of this by trial and error.

OrthoSean wrote:Does your Credenza (or 8-30) have an overhang support or not?

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:OK - then yours wouldn't have the base plate.

There's a small screw that holds the pin in place, loosen it and carefully tap the pin loose. I think with this type of support, you have to take the pin all the way out. The arm will come loose, just be careful, that support is made of pot metal.

Sean

Torjazzer wrote:On my bracket/tonearm there is no small screw holding it in place: I assume you are referring to the screw that holds in guiding pin on the older brackets, such as the case on my v-xvi. So the pin comes out quite easily and the tonearm moves around inside the bracket but something is still holding it inside.

OrthoSean wrote:

Torjazzer wrote:On my bracket/tonearm there is no small screw holding it in place: I assume you are referring to the screw that holds in guiding pin on the older brackets, such as the case on my v-xvi. So the pin comes out quite easily and the tonearm moves around inside the bracket but something is still holding it inside.

That's strange. I've never seen one without a screw to hold the pin in place, even my very late producetion Orthos all have the screw there. Is yours a Canadian built machine? Perhaps they used slightly different parts. I can't say I've ever seen a difference even there, but you never know!

Sean