The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just became the owner of the family's Meteor Talking Machine, which I am presently restoring. The machine is in reasonably good shape, only the cabinet needs work, and all the machinery works. The tonearm was wrapped with masking tape, probably due to a crack or something, it's always been there, but it works. The main issue I'm having at the moment is on playback - most records would loop (ie; being stuck in a repeating skip). I'm using brand new needles, and cleaning out the grooves of the records as best I can, but the issue is most likely due to an inability for the tonearm to reliably track the record. The socket joint portion of it (for lack of better words) seems to move easily enough, but it might just be stiff enough to keep the arm from tracking easily. Once I spray some WD40 in there to clean it, followed by a few drops of gun oil (it's what I had on hand, I used it to repair an old camera), the record plays much better, though not 100% perfectly, but by the next day it needs a bit more lubrication to play a record, because most records are looping again.

That's the background, my question is what kind of lubricant should I use to remedy this issue? Is there anything else you would recommend I do to improve performance? I'd really appreciate any input, as this is a new hobby for me and I have limited knowledge on this stuff. I've attached a photo of the tonearm in question. It functions like a ball and socket joint. Kevin

Kevin, If the tonearm swings easily when you move it by hand, you might want to move the mechanism on the tonearm to a different position or out of the way completely so that it doesn't hit the automatic stop. If all your records stop in the same position----the automatic stop might be the culprit, set to stop the record automatically. The automatic stop was a feature designed to shut the machine off at the end of a record, so you would not have to get up and turn the phonograph off manually. Hope it does the trick. Good Luck, Are you aware of the history of the company that made it?

It isn't an issue of stopping (and I normally have that little bar turned sideways), it's more of the track repeating, like when a needle hits a scratch and instead of it moving forward it bounces backwards and keeps playing the same second and a half of music over and over, no matter where on the record it's playing. In this case it's just enough friction on the tonearm joint that it prevents it from easily moving along the groove, into the record. As for your question, yes! The company primarily made hearses and ambulances, the speaker grill even has a piece of printed tapestry that I wonder if it might have been from fabric they used for the windows of their hearses and ambulances.

Have you dismantled the tonearm base? That ball at the end of the tonearm must set on a conical seat on the base, which should be greased for easy movement and also for air leak sealing, which improves the sound. Examine it for traces of a race for bearing balls, although by the era (1916-1924) and the style of the joint there is likely no ball bearing race there. In general, the grease
in all tonearm joints is beneficial for those reasons above.
Another possibility, certainly highly probable, your tonearm is made of a metallic material named mazak or pot metal, of very frequent use in that era because of ease of casting complex pieces like those much cheaper than other manufacture methods. Unfortunately this material develops intergranular corrosion with age, and the parts swell and develop cracks like the ones hidden by that tape in your example. This can make the movable joints not work. If the material isn't too far deteriorated, it is possible to polish the joints and moving parts ends with fine steel wool to soften them and reduce the effects of swelling, and eventually you could make it work properly again. Otherwise there's no solution except replacing with other better tonearm or making one anew with 3D printing (arguably...)
Be careful, for swelled mazak can make the parts disintegrate under your fingers at the lightest pressure, depending on the material state of degradation. Although if this is the case there is no solution except to replace all.

Has the reproducer or sound box been overhauled with fresh soft diaphragm gaskets, allowing the needle to move freely in the groove? A semi-frozen sound box can cause tracking problems, not to mention increase record wear.

OrthoFan

All great info, thanks! No, I've not done any sort of fiddling around with the tonearm yet, wasn't even sure where to start 'til this morning. As for the reproducer, I've not done any sort of disassembly, or looked for gaskets. This machine, I would suspect, has not had any sort of use since the early 60's, certainly no maintenance. I'll look into these suggestions.

Apparently you are unaware of the condition of the tonearm under the tape. If the tonearm is broken in two and wrapped with tape to keep it together, that would be unstable and likely causing a problem. The best answer for that, is to unwrap it and see what's hiding under the tape. You may need to find a replacement generic tonearm and reproducer. Meteor probably bought those parts from a universal parts manufacturer. If anyone knows the supplier, you can likely find replacement parts or use something similar.