The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have been producing a few videos from my Columbia 800 recently. I notice a few things that seem odd. When you release the stop/start lever to the front left of the turntable the motor usually just sits there. You have to give it a good push to make it run an then it takes some effort on its part to obtain the set speed. The break release on the right rear usually will start the motor but also takes some time to move at speed. The auto shut off tends to push the lever out of the way that stops the record rather than tripping the breaking mechanism.. And one large record is about all it will play without rewinding. I have tired to see what it is about the way all those levers converge in the area of the spindle to stop and start the motor but its all pretty much greek to me.. Does anyone here have experience with this motor that may be able to offer some thought as to why its so sluggish. I oiled the motor and governor pads when I got it and hadn't run it till a few weeks ago when I got the reproducer back.. Speaking of which, I managed to buy a very nice chrome version of the Viva Tonal Reproducer off ebay.. To my surprise its in very good playing condition and evidently was from a full sized machine. I had thought it might be to a portable and might not fit my arm but its easily interchangeable. The sound is a bit more solid and with a little more volume and not so prone to a metallic sound on loud notes.. Not sure what to look for on the Gold one that is supposed to be on it to see where the trouble may be. Its supposed to have a new old stock diaphragm installed which does look like the one in the Chrome one I just got. but it is displaying more metallic sound.

Larry

That is a very strong motor which should easily play as many records on a winding as a Victor 4 spring. You need to at least oil all of the bushings you can find and make sure the governor pads are saturated. You may or may not need to regrease the mainsprings in order to bring it up to good performance. I never needed to do that with mine, but you never know.
I can't address your autostop and other problems because I sold my 800 years ago and can't remember how that was all configured.

Jim

Yes they are a difficult motor to work on. Maybe that's why they went to a Garrard motor in 1928. My tech got mine working fine, but it took some work as he had never seen a Columbia motor before, just Edison and Victor.