The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello folks! I'm new round these quarters and -after quite a long wait- I got started with vintage phonographs. I got myself a Silvertone portable ... and there was a problem. The crank was missing (don't know who's to blame there) so in my eagerness I managed to wind up the machine with a pencil (I've handled vintage talking machines before at an antique store so I'm sure I did it the right way) only to find out that the motor runs backwards. Also, the speed control doesn't seem to respond and it doesn't start on its own either, I gotta give it a little push (and even then it started to go backwards). Any idea on how to fix this?
Thanks for the assistance.

Sorry, but spring driven gramophone motors just CANT run backwards... unless they're possessed by poltergiest.

I have to agree with GS. You wind the machine clockwise; the turntable rotates clockwise.

Whoa... that's a new one on me.

Perhaps you are placing the tonearm on the wrong side of the record spindle? That might make it appear that the motor is running in the wrong direction... However, I like the idea of a haunted phonograph much better than this easy solution!!

I don't have any possessed phonographs but I do have an Alma Gluck record that I would swear is evil.

1923VictorFan wrote:I don't have any possessed phonographs but I do have an Alma Gluck record that I would swear is evil.

novkev24 wrote:

1923VictorFan wrote:I don't have any possessed phonographs but I do have an Alma Gluck record that I would swear is evil.

Aren't they all?

Guest wrote:Hello folks! I'm new round these quarters and -after quite a long wait- I got started with vintage phonographs. I got myself a Silvertone portable ... and there was a problem. The crank was missing (don't know who's to blame there) so in my eagerness I managed to wind up the machine with a pencil (I've handled vintage talking machines before at an antique store so I'm sure I did it the right way) only to find out that the motor runs backwards. Also, the speed control doesn't seem to respond and it doesn't start on its own either, I gotta give it a little push (and even then it started to go backwards). Any idea on how to fix this?
Thanks for the assistance.

Can you post a short video of the machine in operation? If not a video, a picture or two with a clear description of the direction the turn table is spinning.

I once found a Rishell machine with a Meisselbach motor that had been repaired by a fellow who forgot to mark the proper direction for the installation of the springs in their barrels. the motor ran backward, and did so rather well, so a jbackward-running machine IS a possibility.