The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Evening! New to the forums, this will be my first post here so I hope I'm in the right spot!

I've been working on restoring a barn-find 1914 model VV-IX Victrola, done a full rebuild on the motor, reproducer, even the cabinet- trust me, the thing was a mess. For the most part though, everything has gone swimmingly- only had to replace a few things ( one of the main-springs included, as well as the governor springs ) after clearing away the ancient grease and reassembled the thing with proper lubricants. It all works quite nicely now, plays beautifully! Except for one issue I seem to be having, and that's the RPMs on the spindle and platter.

The governor, no matter what I do with the adjustments, is keeping the thing turning just slightly too slow. It's consistent at around 71 rpm, which is the fastest I can seem to get it to run without the governor weights knocking on the motor frame. I know it's nothing to do with the springs, for when I ran it (briefly) without the governor in it zoomed right up to 90 rpm. But when it's engaged and in the loop, I can adjust the brake to bring the governor all the way down to 33 ( Excellent speed for a Victrola... if I wanted to play Xanadu on it!) but the highest, like I said, seems to be 71. Even when I adjust the little brackets on the motor mount ( The ones with the teeny ball bearings in them ) to try different positions for the governor, I can't seem to get those last 7 rpms needed to play at the proper speed out of this thing!

Anyone have any ideas? I can post any pictures necessary, I'm just wondering if this is a problem anyone else has ever run into with a rebuild?

- Benjamin

Sounds as though you might have weak springs on the governor. Any indication whether they might have been replaced at some time?

Bill

Lucius1958 wrote:Sounds as though you might have weak springs on the governor. Any indication whether they might have been replaced at some time?

Bill

That was my thought initially actually, and there was little bit of a twist in one of the old springs when I found it, so I went ahead and replaced all three with brand new ones from Walt Sommers over at Gettysburg Antique Phonographs. They went in fine, but the problem persists afterwards. So unless the new springs are weak I'm not sure it could be them, are weak new springs something that crops up often? ( I'm not 100% well versed in replacement part quality, but they were recommended to me by a long time collector so I took a chance )

- Benjamin

Is the governor sliding easily up and down on its shaft? Any binding there will affect speed.

You might need heavier gov springs. Are they the same thickness and width as the ones you took off? Give Ron Sitko a call he has all the sizes. He is closed till after the new year.
Bob

No binding that I could notice, when I rebuilt it I took the whole governor apart and slicked it up nicely. But the mention of the springs does make me wonder- the governor springs seem to be visually identical, in size and shape, but they're quite obviously a different kind of steel than the originals.

Certainly couldn't hurt to try some heavier springs, might look into that.

I had that problem once and it turned out to be the wrong springs for the governor..they were just a tad bit long.

I also had an early victor motor once that had (what appeared to be)smaller weights on the governor.

spin78's wrote:I had that problem once and it turned out to be the wrong springs for the governor..they were just a tad bit long.

I also had an early victor motor once that had (what appeared to be)smaller weights on the governor.

Hmm... I actually didn't think to take precise measurements on the old springs before replacing them, just eyeballed it. I'll check some precise measurements on them in the morning and see if it's something like that.

Use a micrometer or caliper, if you have, to measure the thickness also.
Bob