Number of Ball Bearings in a VV2-55 Arm Race?

[Lah Ca]

How many ball bearings should be in the ball race in a VV2-55 tone arm? There were only 5 in mine.

The arm on my new-to-me VV2-55 has been problematic in the support bracket area. When I got the machine the pivot-set-screw was backed off so far that the arm was almost falling loose of the screw and the weight of the arm/elbow, and reproducer was pulling the arm up and forward so that the base of the arm was not riding on the ball race. I would imagine that things were also very loose when the machine was stored upright—some ball bearings may have fallen out? Anyway, I remedied this looseness. But the arm did not feel good.

So I backed the set-screw off all the way, flooded the base of the bracket with WD40, and worked the arm back and forth. Then I let it sit for an hour or two. I poured the WD40, now brown and grimy, out, and repeated the process several times. I began working a small artist’s brush around inside the area of the ball race, getting it grimy and then rinsing it in the WD40. I repeated this ad nauseam. In the process, I got three ball bearings loose. I rinsed everything with WD40, and it was coming out quite clean.

So I switched to isopropyl alcohol and flooded the base of the support bracket and began cleaning more grime and oil out with another stiffer brush. I got to a point where things seemed to be getting clean.

So I got two zap straps of different sizes and a length of weed whacker line with an end folded over into a short hook. I began working these around in the ball race area while adding alcohol with a brush. With the small zap strap I could fit the head in and work it all around. With the larger zap strap I could get the flat, pointed end in and work it around like a spade. I got out two more ball bearings, each embedded in chunks of rock hard grease and fibres, possibly dog hair and dust. I also got out an old needle embedded in rock hard grease and fibres. I also got out numerous chunks of rock hard grease and fibres with nothing interesting inside them. The weed whacker line was useful for cleaning out finer gunk.

I need to buy more alcohol to continue this.

It should be fairly easy to repack the ball race with grease and get the bearings back in if I work carefully.

[JerryVan]

Five bearings could be correct, provided that there is a spacer plate in there to keep the balls evenly separated. Such a plate would have 5 notches in it, (or maybe more, if there are missing balls). If there is no spacer plate, then there is no harm in using as many balls as will fit, so long as they're not crammed in enough to bind.

[Lah Ca]

Five bearings could be correct, provided that there is a spacer plate in there to keep the balls evenly separated. Such a plate would have 5 notches in it, (or maybe more, if there are missing balls). If there is no spacer plate, then there is no harm in using as many balls as will fit, so long as they're not crammed in enough to bind.

Thank you for the reply.

I will have to experiment here, blindly it seems.

Whatever I do, I don't think the results will be worse than it was. LOL.

And if, I have destroyed things irreparably, I am only out about $20 US and I still have a working, if grubby looking, Orthophonic reproducer.

I wish I had another arm with a broken support bracket so I could take everything apart to see how things are constructed inside. But as they do say .... if wishes were horses ....

[MarkELynch]

The ball separator for your 2-55 is part number 21261PF and has recesses for five balls. Be sure to replace the grease once you remove the old hardened grease. The grease is essential to seal the air gap at the base of the taper tube. I would not attempt to dismantle the assembly because of the weak nature of old cast Potmetal parts. Use a good heavy plumber’s valve stem grease like sold by SolderSeal.

Mark

[Lah Ca]

The ball separator for your 2-55 is part number 21261PF and has recesses for five balls. Be sure to replace the grease once you remove the old hardened grease. The grease is essential to seal the air gap at the base of the taper tube. I would not attempt to dismantle the assembly because of the weak nature of old cast Potmetal parts. Use a good heavy plumber’s valve stem grease like sold by SolderSeal.

Mark

IMG_4554.jpeg

Very helpful! Many thanks!

That the ball separator part was available means that the arm was intended to be serviced (if necessary). Very interesting. Especially interesting since there is no easy way to take it apart. Service people back in the day must have drilled out rivets, done the necessary repairs, and then riveted it all back together. Probably not a daunting task with the right tools, experience, and new(ish) pot metal.

Interesting advice with the grease recommendation. Most plumber's grease, the stuff I have bought for home use anyway, is not that heavy. But then there is the industrial stuff for large valves-no experience with this. I do have a very good multi-grade synthetic grease which I have used for a variety of gramophone and turntable purposes. I may give this a try since I already own it.

[Lah Ca]

Some of the tools, the five ball bearings, and the old needle.

The bit of weed whacker line has lost some if its hook.

[Lah Ca]

I am having difficulty getting the old grease fully cleaned out of the ball race.

WD 40 and isopropyl alcohol, used separately, each only do so much. I am left with an amalgam of dust, pet hair, and gum-like grease.

Options immediately available to me are white gas (paraffin), gasoline, turpentine, acetone, and maybe some mineral spirits (somewhere).

I am concerned about damaging the paint on the support bracket. It is an ugly oxblood colour with some veriegation of colour within the paint. It will be hard to match should I need to repaint or touch up.

Any suggestions?

[Lah Ca]

Working on the thing, I discovered two more old needles trapped in the ball race. I could not quite dislodge them. They would pop into view in their now gummy coats of hardened grease and fiber and then disappear again.

So I tested solvents on the chunks of rock hard grease I had earlier pulled out. The most immediately effective was the white gas/naptha/paraffin. I tested it on the paint, and it was brutal. But at this point, I was getting frustrated, putting more time into this than it is all worth. So I went brutal.

I also made a small wire brush by cutting a length of trolling wire and bending the end over at a right angle. The strands of the steel wire came apart and formed a small brush which I was able to work around inside the race area quite effectively

I got the needles out. I think I have all the grease out now, too.

And I understand now how the variegated oxblood paint finish was achieved. There seems to have been an initial coat of a mauve colour over which reddish brown and black sprays were added very lightly. Anyway, I will probably repaint it black. No one but me (and you, the reader) will ever know; the machine is just so dark and all the more so with the lid stay in place so that the top of the case overhangs the machine. The unfortunate beast is not a pride of place show item--too far gone ever to reach that status.

It is interesting looking at the support bracket now. It appears to be in three parts: topmost is the pot metal bracket into which the arm was probably inserted during manufacture; next in the middle is the steel plate which is riveted to the support bracket; and bottom-most appears to the bottom of the ball race which seems to be press fit into place. Whatever the Victor part is in the parts catalog illustration kindly provided above is, I am reasonably certain now that it is not something loose and is perhaps part of the bottom of the race or is the actual bottom. I am wondering if the bottom could not be extracted from the steel plate to facilitate cleaning and repair. I would not want to try this now with the old pot metal attached.

[JerryVan]

Whatever the Victor part is in the parts catalog illustration kindly provided above is, I am reasonably certain now that it is not something loose ...

In order for the ball spacer plate to do its job it must, in fact, be "something loose". The balls rotate within the 5 pockets of the plate, and as they roll their way around the race, they carry the spacer plate along with them. The plate is either missing, or still "glued" to the ball race by old grease.

[Lah Ca]

Whatever the Victor part is in the parts catalog illustration kindly provided above is, I am reasonably certain now that it is not something loose ...

In order for the ball spacer plate to do its job it must, in fact, be "something loose". The balls rotate within the 5 pockets of the plate, and as they roll their way around the race, they carry the spacer plate along with them. The plate is either missing, or still "glued" to the ball race by old grease.

Interesting.

Thank you.

The ball spacer plate is highly unlikely to be missing. I do not see how it could accidentally fall out. And the five ball bearings which could more easily fall out than the spacer were all still there.

So as you suggest, the spacer is probably still glued to the ball race, or perhaps, it is still jammed in with old grease and more needles, dust, and dog hair.

Back into the solvent, I guess. I only had to leave things in the white gas a few minutes to melt the grease, get the needles out, and have my exploratory scrapings come up clean (and to destroy the paint).