Td 160 Motor Spindle Bent... Help/Parts Needed

[Hogwash]

Hi all,

When adjusting the springs on my TD 160 MK IV for the first time and taking away the platter I discovered that the pivot of the motor seems to be slightly bent.

When rotating (with or without belt) I observe a very small horizontal (left-right / back-forth) movement of the pulley. I took off the pulley, looked at the pivot alone and the jitter is still there...

So my first question is:
Can this be adjusted by any means or do I have to look for a new motor ?
Or can the spindle alone be replaced ? I didn't dare to disassemble the motor yet...

And if I have to get a new motor, is there a place to look for one ? Or would that be to look for a whole TT on Ebay ?

The second question is:
I have a slight slow tumble on my platter too. I rotated the outter platter all the way round to look for the best spot and have improved the tumble, but could not fully eliminate it.
Well, that wasn't a question - true - but here it is:
Could that be linked to the jittering pulley ?
The frequency of the platters tumble is way lower than that of the pulleys jitter, but since I guess the belt swallows a lot of the jitter on it's way ot the inner platter I was wondering if that might be connected ?

Well, that's enough for now I guess.
Thanks for listening - any help is surely appreciated !

Best,
Karsten

[Alec124c41]

The two might be related in that something might have hit the platter, bending it a bit, and at the same time bending the motor shaft underneath.
You can not replace the shaft. you would have to replace the whole motor.
Meanwhile, try this: use a small block of wood against the side of the shaft, and tap the wood with a small hammer. You can feel any eccentricity.
I did this with a TD-150 I received with a bent motor shaft. With the pulley on, I held a pencil so that the high point took a mark, so I knew exactly to tap. Then clean, test with pencil, and tap again.
You might get a mark with a felt pen on the bare shaft. The important point is to go gently and slowly.

Cheers,
Alec

[pe1c]

As Alec said, you can't replace the shaft. See if some one knows anyone who works in a engineering workshop. If they have the skills and resources, they may be able to straighten the shaft for bottle of wine as a thank you. Failing that, new motor or 2nd hand turntable. I'm afraid.

You may be lucky and find one that's being sold cheaply because of serious cosmetic problems but, make sure, that this damage/neglect doesn't extend to the motor.

[philltubes]

The motor shaft comes through the top plate which looks like a round hole, you might be able to get a piece of PVC piping or the like that could slide over the shaft and into that round hole. From there you could see where the motor shaft is off center, carefully realign the shaft to where it looks centered within the PVC pipe/tube. You could even make 3 shims to slide between the pulley and the inside of the piping to get closer to centering the shaft. This all depends on finding a piece of piping to fit in that hole, you can actually use shims at the bottom of the piping where the shaft goes through the top plate hole if the piping is slightly smaller that the hole. Just my wild idea but it might work. Good luck.

[Hogwash]

Thank you guys. You really rock !
or: you swing, or groove, or whatever is a compliment in your eyes !

Alec:
just so that I don't get you wrong - did you manage to straighten the shaft by gently tapping it against the wood ?
or did you only do this to get to know the point and degree of "bendness" ?
(sorry, I'm no native speaker nor writer)
I just didn't want to completely ruin the motor by happily tapping away on the poor shaft...

Great idea about that piping. I'll check my attic immediately for anything useful !

[seventy1]

Hi, I coincidentally just bought a TD-160 with the same issue. It doesn't appear that the spindle shaft can be easily removed. But that's not what bends anyway. The spindle shaft presses over the thinner motor shaft and that's the weak link. An instrument repair shop may take on the task, but may be difficult to locate. I did find a shop called "Metro Straightening", but they sound like they work on heavy machinery. If attempting a home repair, I'd think at a minimum you'll need a dial indicator to measure shaft runout. I'm weary of buying a used motor or parts table since I may just be getting another (bent) shaft

[Alec124c41]

I did get my 150 motor shaft straight.
I put a small block of wood against the pulley, then tapped the wood with a small hammer.
Hold the point of a pencil to the surface of the pulley, where the belt rides. You will feel any eccentricity, and the pencil will mark the side you need to tap. Go slowly, and you can do it without any esoteric tools.

Cheers,
Alec

[rkay5]

Hi,
The thorens motor are damn skinny I had 16v from a Td166 with a bent motor shaft I did what Alec did but take the pulley off first find witch it's bent and very,very slowly tap it back to straight it can be done try it as it's hard to find a motor.

[Alec124c41]

If you are working on a bare spindle, try a black marker to mark the high side.

Cheers,
Alec

[seventy1]

Spent quite a bit of time with a dial indicator and finally got mine back to .000" runout. Rather than taping, I removed the pulley assembly and used an awl in the shaft center hole to pry it away from the high point. Took a while, but it's straight.

The bad bit is that straightening the shaft didn't fix the knocking noise I was hearing. With no belt on, the motor makes a knocking noise, sounds like 1/revolution. With a medium load on the shaft, belt and platter on at 33 1/3 rpm, the noise is much reduced. Put a heavier load on, either 45 rpm or dragging a Discwasher, the knocking comes back. I've tried oiling the motor top and bottom with a couple of drops of light machine oil. I haven't tried penetrating oil. Has anyone else had this noise? Thanks.

[Alec124c41]

I recall a thread some time ago on the loose bearing clearance in a motor. If you lift the shaft and let it drop, is there play there? If so, IIRC a tube over the shaft and a tap on it might improve things.I know there are people on this site that know more about this than I do.

Cheers,
Alec

[seventy1]

Thanks, Alec. I do believe there's axial play in the motor (up down in installed position). The table's all neatly tucked away in my cabinet, so I can't test for this without uninstalling it all, will have to do that in the next day or so. I'll search for a thread like that - I'm a little nervous about taping on my newly straightened spindle. Sorry, what's IIRC?

[rkay5]

seventy1.
You can also get motor thrust bearing I found that it will help with motor noise have a look at:
http://srm-tech.co.uk/shop/article_MTB2 ... %3DMTB2%26
Using a motor thrust bearing worked great on my TD166mkII motor it made some noise now nice and quiet.

[Alec124c41]

IIRC - if I recall correctly

Cheers,
Alec