The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everyone. Im an old radio guy from Texas and have worked on, collected, and restored many of them over the years. I am a newby when it comes to Victor phonographs and I have a couple of questions. I bought a VV-IX that had never been serviced before so, I took the motor apart, cleaned and lubricated everything and it seems to run fine. Im not sure about how the 2 spring motor is suppose to work and am second guessing whether I assembled it correctly. This one has the 2 seperate mainspring barrels. When It is running, the barrel closest to the crank rotates and runs everything just find however, the other barrel rarely moves and doesnt appear to do much. Im not sure if this is normal or not or, if I installed the mainspring in that barrel in the wrong direction. I am getting about 15 minutes of run time on a wind.

The second question I have relates to the spindle ball bearing. I didnt know it was in the housing and I lost it during the cleaning process. I found an assortment of ball bearings at my local hardware store and juts took a guess on the size. It seems OK but, does anyone know the exact diameter of that ball bearing or how much end play there is suppose to be in the spindle?
Thanks, Cliff

Hi Cliff welcome to the forum, do you really drive a hearse.

Sounds like you got your motor back together correctly.
If you had a spring in backwards it would not be running. After a few winds with the crank the backwards spring would have broken or come loose at the center and you would have no tension when you wound it after that.

The ball bearing for the spindle is 3/16" if I remember correctly.

There should not be much end play in the spindle, maybe 1/16 " or 3/32". If you look at the spindle there very well may be a indent were the set screw on the locking collar fits into. That would be the correct position. Some models have this indent some don't.

Larry Crandell

Hey Larry! Thanks for the welcome and the help. I am relieved that the motor is assembled correctly. I guess I got lucky on the ball bearing too because I did install a 3/16" ball. I may have put too much grease inside the spring barrels though. Its oozing out pretty good but again, it seem to be running well. I used Mobil-1 synthetic wheel bearing grease in the barrels and on all of the gears. I put a little Royal Purple gear oil in the spring barrels and on all of the bearing surfaces. The motor is not totally quiet. I can hear some rumbling when its running but, Im not familiar enough with these to know what is normal and what is not. I hope to learn much more about these wonderful old machines here in the future. Thanks again, Cliff


PS: Yes..I drive a hearse..I'm an undertaker

Welcome to the forum and to this wonderful hobby! Congratulations, seems you already got off to a good start. It is quite normal I guess to put too much grease into the spring barrels when you are new to this. Have done that myself several times. It does not hurt, but creates a bit of a mess. What I have done is to fold a paper towel or old newspaper and put it into the case under the motor. Then wind the machine fully a few times and let the motor run down while wiping off the excess. A bit tedious, but no big deal. The paper also keeps your case a bit protected from oil dripping from the governor.

In regards to the "rumbling", not sure what kind of noise you describe here. If there is a heavy thumping every half minute or so, that would be if the mainspring is sticking together and needs to be cleaned and re-greased. Many machines have a more or less consistent motor noise, because of worn gears etc. After all it's a 100 year old machine. A bit of grease on the gears may help make it more quiet. Also make sure that the governor is running smoothly and is not too tight and not too loose. Your 15 minutes runtime suggests that it should be ok. In some motors the governor weights hit something when getting to full speed, but that would be a very distinct clacking sound.

Hope that helps.
Andreas

Thankless Andreas! No thumping or anything like that. Its more of a low volume growl from the gears. I greezed them pretty good but, Im sure there is some wear on them. I dont think Im going to worry about it. Cant hear it when the record is playing anyway. Its been a fun project. Now, Im about to tackle my VV-IV. Single spring should be a little easier. It has never been serviced either.