The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just bought a new phonograph! "The Cheney" however the motor will crank but does not spin the turntable, what can i do?

Most likely the spring is broken and will need to be repaired. Although if your cranking and its building pressure you can feel in the handle perhaps it simply needs oil and is stuck temporarily.

How do I take the spring out of the motor housing?

Codcampbell wrote:How do I take the spring out of the motor housing?

VERY CAREFULLY!!

Seriously, there are great resources available which detail disassembling mainspring assemblies (like Eric Reiss' excellent book "The Compleat Talking Machine"), and you do not want to pursue doing so blindly... or you may wind up blind from releasing a wound spring from the housing.

I seem to recall link to a YouTube video here some time back... you may want to search for that video first so you will know what to expect. If I find that link, I'll post back.

To give you a starting place of what to expect, start here (your mileage may vary as you will be disassembling a different motor... but this will give you some idea of how motors are assembled):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R9i7zp-v9s

Really well done videos. Enjoyed watching the whole series.

Clay

I have a two spring Cheney motor- taking it apart was quite simple- the important thing to remember is toi re install the springs in the proper direction.

estott wrote:I have a two spring Cheney motor- taking it apart was quite simple- the important thing to remember is toi re install the springs in the proper direction.

Nothing spells fun like realizing you have not done so until you have squeezed the genie back into the bottle, so to speak... (Or that one of the springs has slipped off the arbor when the whole darn thing is reassembled!)

Some questions re the video, both on the reassembly stage.

1. I notice he did not put any grease on the end of the shaft of the spindle that turns on the ball bearing. I would have thought you should. Is that normal?

2. He used some sort of pink looking grease on the worm gears. What is that?

3. As a follow up on 2, I usually use white lithium. Is what he used better?

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:Some questions re the video, both on the reassembly stage.

1. I notice he did not put any grease on the end of the shaft of the spindle that turns on the ball bearing. I would have thought you should. Is that normal?

2. He used some sort of pink looking grease on the worm gears. What is that?

3. As a follow up on 2, I usually use white lithium. Is what he used better?

Clay

In the very beginning of the 5th part of the series, he shows dropping in oil... he does remark that his preference is Slick 50 rather than 3-N-1. It's easy to miss when you're watching the entire series.

I am going to hazard a guess that the pink grease he is using is probably Jet Lube 33, which is a silicone/lithium grease, though I know Dow Corning also makes a Molykote 33 grease which is similar in color and function.

As for your last question... I think this is one of those types of questions that could be debated across the table all day long. Potato? Potatoe? Tomato? Tomatoe?

@estott So I have most of the motor apart, but I cannot get the shaft which holds the spring housing to come out of the motor housing, any insight?