Right, Ron. Last month, I was playing my Edison Standard and WHAAMMM! The machine literally jumped up off the table and luckily landed on its feet without tipping over (it has a large morning glory horn).
I thought the spring broke. I took the phonograph apart and found out that it was not the spring. It was one of the idler gears that transmits power from the spring barrel to the lower drive pulley. The gear shaft broke off, the gear went flying, and the spring violently unwound. When the gear let go, it damaged the teeth of one of its mates. I managed to get a new shaft pressed into the gear by George Vollema and I repaired the damaged teeth on the other gear with a swiss file. I reassembled the machine, but I just could not get the spring to catch on the hook on the winding shaft. I kept bending the end of the spring into a tighter coil, but it would just keep jumping off when I wound the crank. Apparently, when the gear let go, the spring unwound and bent away from the hook. Finally, I stuck a small screw driver into a little hole in the side of the spring barrel as I cranked, pushing the coils towards the shaft. Finally, it hooked and I was able to wind the spring again. When I got done, I was covered with black graphite grease, my work bench was filthy, and my tools were all gunked up. What a mess! But, now my machine is working again. -Phil On 7/24/04 9:08 PM, "Ron L'Herault" <[email protected]> wrote: > Be prepared to get dirty. Make note of which way the spring winds in > the barrel. Even broke springs will unwind violently when you pull them > out of the barrel. I drop mine into a heavy sack and using pliers held > in a gloved hand, pull on the center winding to get the spring out. > > Ron L
