The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everyone,

My Amberola 30 has a motor that is a bit on the loud side. I have tried lubricating the gears with 3 in 1 oil, which didn't make it more quiet, and I tried using some grease that I had on hand, which didn't do much either. The sound is a bit rattly.

Taking the gear cover off, it seemed that there was some play between the worm screw and the gear that connects to the mandrel and the springs. Moving things about by hand (changing the slop in one direction or another) didn't seem to hit a "sweet spot" where motor noise went away.

Is there a common adjustment that tends to help?

Thanks

Back in the very early 1980s, a friend of
mine from Milwaukee told me about using
STP on noisy gears to quiet them down.

So, for quite a while I kept a little bottle
of STP around, and every so often I'd dip
the end of a small screwdriver in there and
get some on the end, and transfer a bit of it
on to the noisy gears.

On the Edison Standard model D, the 2-4 selector gear can get a little noisy, and also
of course the governor pinion does that too.
A tiny drop of STP quiets that machine right
down.

I kind of got away from using that stuff, mainly because I lost the can of it I had, in
a move and just never bothered to get any more
of it.

But recently I started oiling up a few spots
with 140 wt. and 90 wt gear oil with very
good results.

So, try the STP and/or the thick oil.
It quiets things down, for a while anyway,
then you have to put some more of it on there.

After a while, the whole thing gets real gloppy, and then every so often it needs to
be mopped up with a paper towel.

Around here, that glop combines with wax shavings from all the test recordings and it
makes a real mess after a while, but it isn't
so bad if it gets mopped up from time to time.

Chuck

A word of warning about gear oil from a classic car owner.

If the oil is graded EP (Extreme Pressure) the additives it contains may cause damage to Phosphor Bronze bearings.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I've had good results using a product called Oil Stabilizer from Lucas Oil Products.
It's very sticky and will bog down the works if you use too much, so use sparingly... but it will quiet noisy gears to a great extent,at least for a while.
http://www.buylucasoil.com/viewitem.asp?itemid=10001
It can also be found at your local auto parts store ( Auto Zone, Pepboys..etc.)