The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Does anyone know how to separate the horn from the motor? I looked at the archived Edison manual and it gave some instructions about loosening screws and bolts. I did that. It then says to grab hold of the wood handle that controls where the horn goes and pull out the shaft. I have tried this and mine won't budge!

In order to separate the horn from the rest of the motor, the wood handled lift and lowering arm needs to be pulled out of the horn pivot tube. They can get stuck, so a soaking with some penetrating oil can help. Make certain the bolts at the top are loosened enough to let go of the upper metal shaft with the wood handle part that is inserted into the horn pivot tube.
Hope this helps,
Mike

If penetrating oil doesn't help (it didn't with mine) try applying some heat. That did the trick for me.
Bob

I apologize if you already know this since I don't know your level of familiarity, but the screws 'on top' are actually beneath the bedplate, at the top of the tube that the handle fits into. They should be square-headed, which makes it easy to apply a wrench to them if they are sticky (without fear of stripping as a normal screw might).

Again, no offense meant if you've been at this for years, and know your stuff already.

Try twisting the handle back and forth, sometimes when set screws are tightend down on a shaft, they will raise a burr on the shaft, impeding the extraction of it from the bore.

Fran

mikejk wrote:In order to separate the horn from the rest of the motor, the wood handled lift and lowering arm needs to be pulled out of the horn pivot tube. They can get stuck, so a soaking with some penetrating oil can help. Make certain the bolts at the top are loosened enough to let go of the upper metal shaft with the wood handle part that is inserted into the horn pivot tube.
Hope this helps,
Mike

Don't forget to also loosen the screw on the tension spring. Assuming your machine has a mute ball, you will also need to loosen the screw holding the volume control cable inside the horn, and the screw holding the mute ball on its cable.