I've used Terry's Rubber in the past for rubber idler wheels on other equipment like vintage tape decks. He does excellent work. If you email him he might even have the exact specs on the original parts. At the very least he will be able to restore the rubber and diameters to there proper size.tragwag wrote:I had a friend look over the electronics, and test the tubes in my Phonorecorder.
It is now up to good shape, thanks to a replacement (astatic?) X-26 cutting head I bought from a friend, which was supposedly rewound by Gib.
My only problem now is the turntable speed.
It definitely has something to do with the idler wheels, though I'm hesitant to do any work on them.
They seem really flimsy and easy to ruin.
There is a flat spot on the 33 idler, which causes a ticking noise in the recording.
Also the playback speed at both 33 and 78 are slightly fast.
Im hoping it's not a motor issue, but it's looking that way.
Any advice would be great!
http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/
On the motor, I'm pretty sure you could carefully disassemble the motor, clean and lubricate any bearings. Not a whole lot to go wrong except a winding wire breaking or shorting out but that usually causes the motor to stop working.
I replaced the rubber motor mount bushings with new ones they were defintely shot, cracked and brittle. The motor powered up fine very quiet and smooth running. The idler wheels were also in really good shape, round, not gooey or brittle like some many rubber parts go. A slight amount of glazing on the edges which I cleaned and lightly roughed up with emery paper. I used some specific rubber cleaner I've used before on pinch rollers.
If the motor is failing though then that is of course another story.
Hope that helps with some ideas...