The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I received a F in yesterday and finally got around to playing with it. Of course FedEx screws me again and it takes a beating in shipment. I've been trying to get it to run now with not a lot of luck. It won't start unless brake is off and I give it help, and when the reproducer goes on it has a bad wobble sound. I removed the mandrel shaft and tried to adjust it the best I could where it will spin freely. With the belt off it seems it runs great...so I'm suspecting a upper issue and nothing wrong down below. One thing I've noticed, the mandrel has a lot of up and down play...it has a new brass/bronze bearing...so my initial thought it the bearing by gears is not riding fully in the end of mandrel. Sure enough there was some metal deformed (I guess from screwdriver or something) which didn't allow the bearing tip to go fully into the shaft. I cleaned this up a bit and that is better. The feed pawl was also messed up...even when the button pushed in to keep carriage off feed screw...it was still enagaged. So I used my book and adjusted it using the paper clip method and iit seems to want to play thru a whole record now. The wobble is horrible though and I can't get the speed right. I got the speed adjustment screw almost all the way out to get it to sound right. I'm thinking the mandrel shaft may still be in a bind somehow and not as free spinning as it should. My next idea is to clean up the end a bit more to get the shaft to go further onto the bearing, cause the gears are off the mandrel to have it all line up right...and I'm not sure this is right.


Sorry for the long winded paragraph, I'm using my phone. Lol

Warbling is usually a governor issue. I would first check to make sure the little wire that connects the governor spring assembly to the collar on the sleeve is secured at both ends. If it is not secured at both ends, the governor spring assembly will randomly slide back and forth along the governor shaft thereby randomly changing the speed. It is very common for one end of that wire to come loose, usually from the collar end. I use super glue to reattach it in the slot on the collar, though I suspect solder would be better.

Good luck! Cliff

I'm not following what wire you're talking about. I'm about to take a look and see if I can find what you mean. Thanks! When the wife gets home and can watch the baby while I look at it I'll let you know if I find it. I'll include a pic too.

The wire is a thin wire on the governor that is used as a spacer. I had the same problem with a home F I restored. Someone had used vice grips on the shaft scoring it. It spun fine after I had oiled it but it would not play a four minute cylinder. I took the mandrel shaft and wire wheeled it to smooth it out which improved it but no 4 minutes. I took it off again and polished the shaft and it finally played 4 minutes. I believe that if the shaft is not perfectly smooth when the belt pulley puts pressure on the shaft bearing it will slow it down somewhat. I try to clean up new bearings when I install them too. Also check to see if one of the bearing pins on the governor is possible bent. That can slow it down. Tom B

Here is a short video.

Video sounds like the wrong reproducer playing the wrong cylinder. Like using a C to play a 4-minute cylinder.

hearsedriver wrote:Video sounds like the wrong reproducer playing the wrong cylinder. Like using a C to play a 4-minute cylinder.

Right? I've made sure it was set on the right selection before I took the video lol

I would take a serious look at the reproducer. Worn stylus? Something is sure jacked up.

Is the colar on the gov to the left of the disc supposed to be up against the disc?

hearsedriver wrote:I would take a serious look at the reproducer. Worn stylus? Something is sure jacked up.

This is my first model S, don't know much about them. I tried to spect the inside with a flashlight and everything looks good. Both stylus' look good to me. I can take a pic of you'd like. Here's a pic of the stylus