The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi,
Can anyone help ? The belt has snapped on my Gem model A and when I came to replace it I cannot work out how the belt tensioner works ! I expected it to have a spring attached to create the tension but there isn't one - the arm just swings left and right. Does it just rely on its weight to tension belt or should there be a spring ? I also can't decide now which side of the belt it goes. I attach a poor sketch of three possible scenarios - is one of these correct or is it something different ?

Please help !!

I believe the attached pic is how it goes....

You are missing the spring. You can see a little hole where is catches on the motor frame unless thats a piece of dust.

Like you have 2 drawn I think.

Part 1186. Looks like a long piece of spring steel.

Thanks for the help - I can't really see where the long piece of steel would fit ? Does anyone have a photo of the tensioner with the spring in situ ?

Gramtastic wrote:Thanks for the help - I can't really see where the long piece of steel would fit ? Does anyone have a photo of the tensioner with the spring in situ ?

It's in the upper right of the picture above the parts list. It wraps around in an "S" shape. I dont have a GEM A with the tension-er so I cant tell you exactly how it works.

Many thanks - I now see how it works !!

Just as an aside, I had Bob Farrell (Bob on this forum) make one. I believe he used a governor spring.
If you need additional help, PM me for his phone #.

Best of luck,

Gene