The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have an Edison Fireside B with a bad/repaired governor spring. I also have an Edison Standard B parts machine with a good governor. Will a Standard B governor work on a Fireside B?

Alternatively, I can see if I can find a set of governor springs for my Fireside B.

Thanks,
Mike

It's generally best to replace all three springs and sometimes weights so the governor is balanced. You want equal tension springs and equal weights. If the Standard spring length is the same, and I suspect it is, you couldn't hurt anything by giving it a try.

You've probably hear this before but I'll say it again. Let the motor run down before working on the governor!

Jerry B,

With the exception of a slightly different design on the lower belt pulley, the motors appear to be identical. I think that I'm going to try and switch out the entire governor. We'll see what happens.
Here is the bad spring. Somebody got creative.

While at first glance the motors appear to be identical, they are not. The bull gear and it's mating pinion are different on the two motors. The whole motor will interchange, but not all the gears from motor to motor. I hope I made sense!

Dave D

Yes! Something similar happens with certain variants of Victor or hmv motors... Slight changes in the gearing make the parts impossible to share between them.

Thanks, everyone. I only needed to switch out the governor between the two machines, nothing else. The Fireside retains its original motor, with the governor from the Standard. That seems to have worked perfectly. The Fireside is running great and it sounds perfect. I see no difference between the two governors.