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First Victrola rebuild, so bear with me if you can.

A friend gave me a VV-Xi in pieces and asked me if I could fix it. Been making out OK so far and I am in the process of re-assembling everything. Yesterday I installed the motor and motor board and put the turntable on to adjust the speed. Now, when I got this machine there were no gaskets or pads of any kind between the motor and the motor board. A VV-X that I bought as a parts machine had thick fiber pads to isolate the motor and I thought this was a good idea and probably original, so I cut some pads and installed them is the VV-XI.

This lowered the motor somewhat so when I started it up, the turntable rubbed against the brake lever. When the turntable from the VV-X is installed on the VV-XI, there is no problem. There are some clues to what may happened. First, one of the bolts that attaches the motor to the motor board on the XI is mismatched, indicating that the motor had been removed before and pads or gaskets may have been lost or deliberately removed. Second, the brake lever had been bent flat as if it had been rubbing against the turntable.

My theory is that, sometime in the past, the wrong turntable was installed on this machine and the pads were removed and the brake lever deliberately flattened to avoid rubbing against the turntable.

So, my questions are 1) should there be fiber pads between the motor and the motor board on a VV-XI, and 2) Is there a way to tell if I have the right turntable for this machine?

Thank you,

Dale H

I'm not quite sure exactly what you mean saying you used fibre, but i (& original manufacturer's) normally use either rubber or felt for motor insulation.
Whatever you use needs to be able to compress fairly well.
I've used various thicknesses of felt and rubber, but found 1-2mm thick washers are easy to make, and i can stack them to an appropriate size, and you can more or less fine tune the turntable height by tightening or backing off the screws that hold the motor to the motor board.
Some rubbers are softer than others, and some felts compress more than others, so if you make your own, you might have to experiment a little to determine how many you'll need and how tight the screws need to be to get it right.

Not sure if you've tried tightening your motor screws, but often a quarter turn or half turn of the screws will be enough to lift the turntable and provide enough clearance to stop the turntable hitting anything.
Also be sure after adjusting the screws that the turntable is level with even clearance between the turntable edge and motor board all the way around.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I tried the table from the X again and found that it was not seating all way down because of rust in the spindle hole. Once I cleaned the rust out, it rubbed just like the table that came with the machine, so it looks like the pads I installed are too thick.

By "fiber pads" I mean that they look like thick felt but are new and probably some kind of synthetic.

I do have some thin rubber sheets, so I will try making pads from one of them to the motor as high as possible and the problem should go away.

Thanks again

Dale H

I've suffered from similar problems. I used modern neoprene washers, those sold in the hardware stores that come a lot in a bag, different sizes, etc. But I found them too thick, just the same problem as you! I finally managed to source old thin felt washers from another gramophone, and that does it work fine. So I'd suggest you to try to find thin rubber or neoprene or felt washers. Even fine leather washers cut from leather sheet might work well.

I've come across washers cut from carpet before, not that id recommend using carpet, but it did work.

dale h wrote: Sat Oct 08, 2022 7:56 am I do have some thin rubber sheets, so I will try making pads from one of them to the motor as high as possible and the problem should go away.

Thanks again

Dale H

Be careful not to lift the turntable too high, otherwise you risk the brake not contacting the turntables edge properly, and it throws off the angle at which the needle sits on the record slightly.
On some machines, particularly portables like the HMV 102, it can also cause the tonearm itself to then hit the record surface.

For what it's worth, I start with 1" furniture felt pads and then slice off a thin washer with a sharp carpet knife. Watch for your fingers! Then use a hole punch and they're ready. Might take a few tries to get the correct thickness, but these things are cheap. Didn't have much success with rubber washers. I assume you could also use two or three layers of turntable felt?

Andreas

alang wrote: Wed Oct 12, 2022 12:56 pm For what it's worth, I start with 1" furniture felt pads and then slice off a thin washer with a sharp carpet knife. Watch for your fingers! Then use a hole punch and they're ready. Might take a few tries to get the correct thickness, but these things are cheap. Didn't have much success with rubber washers. I assume you could also use two or three layers of turntable felt?

Andreas

I have done the same with great results.