The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have been working on a VV-IV with a single spring motor and finally got everything put back together far enough to test it. This is the first single spring motor I have messed with, and the spring seems much more stiff, or hard, to wind than a two spring motor. Is that typical of single spring motors? I took the spring out and cleaned everything, and put it back together using white lithium grease for lubricant.

Was it hard to wind before you worked on it?

Victor motors seem to vary some in how much gear reduction is used between the crank and the springs. Some varieties had no gear reduction at all, with the crank screwing directly into the spring barrel. Others had winding gears, but only to reverse rotation, and not to offer gear reduction. My point is, your single spring motor have no gear reduction between crank & spring, while the 2 spring motors you're used to may have had reduction. Becomes kind of a comparison between "apples & oranges" thing.

I've noticed the same, both with Victor motors of the sloped governor type. And I thought the same, simpler motors may have less reduction at the winding gear than double spring motors.
I also noticed that Victor and hmv motors of the later 4 spring type (the famous Burton motors) have different winding reduction. Hmv is stronger, while the Victor has more reduction (the winding gear is larger at the handle, and smaller at the spring arbor in HMVs , when compared to Víctor same motor). I discovered it trying to swap gears due to a noisy winding gearing.

Edited due to mistake! Victor Burton motor is easier to wind up.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to wind it before I started work on it - much of it was already disassembled. I will compare the gears to a VV-X I have, which is much easier to wind than this VV-IV. A difference in the gear reduction may be the answer. My concern is/was that I reassembled something incorrectly causing it to wind hard, however it plays just fine.