Questions regarding HMV gramophone 102c

Hi,

this will be my first post so go gentle on me.

To begin with I have no experience with gramophones or musical devises at all. It began with a sleepless night and I went to my garage and found a HMV gramophone 102c and thought I'll see if it still works (The HMV is one of few thing I inherited from my father). Of course it didn't work but every piece is shining and intact so I thought it would be a piece of cake to make it work.

I noticed that the "engine" didn't work because of the plate. A "thing" under the plate made contact with the plate so it could'nt spinn. I saw that this caused of the "thing" sitting on the top of the motor (the "thing" that you the plate on to make it spinn) was tilted a bit so thereby the friction. So I screwed the screws (which was unecessary. I could have unscrewed the screws and just thighten them up on the front.) Well, now I had the "engine" in my hand and I took the "handle" and started to crank and I saw that the engine did work. But after a while, like 4-9 secs depending on which speed the engine had, it started to make a noise. A little bit of wool started to scratch a plate - How can I fix this?

Is there any blueprints to see?

I hope my post isnt to messy but I would realy like to see this grammophone work.

Regards,
Eric, Sweden, 22

feel free to email me on: gastongas /@/ gmail.com

Hi Eric:


Since the gramophone has been sitting for a number of years, the motor (engine) will probably need a through cleaning and re-lubrication, as well as some adjustments. Your best bet would be to take it to a repair shop that specializes in spring motor repair, but I don't know of any where you live in Sweden. (Can any of this site's members PLEASE suggest a shop?)

If you think it might help, there's a basic motor guide on this page, which identifies the major parts by name -- http://www.clpgs.org.uk/spring_motor_detail.htm

Other sites, such as Nipperhead, provide owners manuals with motor guides, and basic lubrication instructions -- SEE http://nipperhead.com/ephemera.htm
(Click on the thumbnail images listed for each manual, to make them full size for viewing/printing.)

Another option would be to buy a basic gramophone/phonograph repair guide, such as "The Compleat Talking Machine" by Eric Reiss. (That is the way "complete" is spelled in the book's title.) You can do a title search on http://www.google.com to locate a copy. I believe that you can also get it via Amazon.com.

Hello Eric!

Can I suggest that if you are not sure about how the motor works and don't feel able to tackle it for yourself, that you get a specialist to do it for you as JoeDS suggested?

You could contact Ken Priestley by emailing to ken@fonograf.com or visit http://www.fonograf.com.

He has stripped down and rebuilt nearly as many 102's as HMV made originally so if anyone can service your motor and get it going smoothly, he can!

As you're in Sweden, and the EU, postage both ways to and from the UK shouldn't be expensive either. The motor is thankfully very light.

Ken is one of my trusted repairmen and you won't go wrong with him.

Regards

Steve