The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The 8-30 that I totally restored for my mom and put in her house is working fine except for the eccentric trip. This is type with the forked arm moved by the rod on the tonearm. After restoration it worked great, but gradually the end of record groove is failing to trip even on many Victor VE records, gradually getting worse. Visually it works as it should and it is oiled and smooth, but many times the groove travel isn't *quite* enough to finally trip it after the ratchet has engaged into that little gear rack, near the end of the record. If I manually pull the soundbox just a tiny bit more outward from center, after the ecen. groove has been entered, it will trip. However it is getting so some Victor ecen. groove records will trip, some won't.

I tried shifting the little gear rack a little in different directions after loosening it's two mounting screws. I guess that adjustment is for correctly aligning the rack teeth with the ratchet and for setting the 'zone' on a record where the ratchet will first engage(?) Couldn't get any effect out of that as per whether it trips or not though. Only thing I can imagine right now is maybe wear has increased the groove movement necessary to trip it beyond what is normal.
Anybody have some tricks to dialing this in or other suggestions, other adjustments if any?
Thanks!!
Mark

There's a tension spring that presses down on the ratchet "track" that you adjusted, my best guess would be to tighten the spring a turn or two.

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:There's a tension spring that presses down on the ratchet "track" that you adjusted, my best guess would be to tighten the spring a turn or two.
Sean

The machine is at her place but I'll be back over there Thursday and I'll snap a trip mechanism pic. Will post again on Thursday night, thanks!
Mark

I forgot the camera, but I eyeballed it again and as usual the cause should have been obvious, it just wasn't to me at first : )
The adjustable half of the tonearm trip rod had come loose and unscrewed itself only(!) about 10 or 15 turns during normal play as the rod moved back and forth in the fork, which of course added a ton of excess play. That's why I noticed the tripping getting less and less reliable over time. Screwed the rod back on tight and all is well again, yayyy!
Mark