Walthers Cornerstone 130' turntable (1st gen) help request

[nickelplate759]

They should be back.
Al

Cool!

[peteski]

They should be back.
Al

Nice!
But I'll say it again: if the photos were posted to the gallery (instead of being uploaded as attachments directly to the post), the problem wouldn't have happened in the first place. 

[nickelplate759]

I pulled the drive train apart (the pictures helped a lot).

There are fewer washers than show in the pictures, way too much grease, and (most important), a sliver of brass, that looks like it might have come from a worm tooth, in the grease of one of the worm gears.  I'm going to clean it all and re-lube and see.

I don't see any cracked gears yet, but I won't know for sure until they are clean.

[alhoop]

There are fewer washers than show in the pictures, way too much grease, and (most important), a sliver of brass, that looks like it might have come from a worm tooth, in the grease of one of the worm gears. 

I don't see any cracked gears yet, but I won't know for sure until they are clean.

All those washers are important, especially the one shown in photo 4 - it is imperative that it is
present  - if not the rough end of the pictured worm will hang up on the side wall and cause
the turntable to stop. That is probably where the sliver of brass came from.
Al

[nickelplate759]

All those washers are important, especially the one shown in photo 4 - it is imperative that it is
present  - if not the rough end of the pictured worm will hang up on the side wall and cause
the turntable to stop. That is probably where the sliver of brass came from.
Al

There was no washer on the worm shaft (photo 4).  I guess I need to find a replacement.   All the others are present.  Also, the loop that holds the drive gear (the one that engages the pit) is cracked, but I don't think that's too important.

My goodness was the thing full of grease!

[Bruce Bird]

As to your question about swapping out the Code 80 for Code 55- I have done that. I just slid out the 80 and replaced it with 55 of the same length.  I zapped it with a bit of adhesive so that it won't slide, and soldered up the feeds.  It works very nicely.  Just make sure you take your time and not knock off a bunch of the 'spikeheads' that hold the rail on the bridge and in gauge.

[peteski]

My goodness was the thing full of grease!

Unfortunately this is very common in all Chinese-made mechanical items. They seem to thing that more grease is gooder! 

[nkalanaga]

It holds things together and quiets internal noises - just long enough for any warranty to run out.

[nickelplate759]

I've reassembled it, with only a little grease (Labelle teflon grease) and motor oil.  It's still missing the one washer on the bottom (well, top really) shaft from picture #4, but I wanted to see how well it would run - if it were still bad I wasn't going to go and buy washers...

It runs a lot better.  No thump-thump, and so far no mysterious stopping.   It's louder than when it was running in a grease bath, but it's more consistent in sound in each direction.

Next step is to make it look good!

[peteski]

Excellent George!
BTW, you could probably have made some washers yourself from sheet styrene.  I have done that before.

[nickelplate759]

So I got a hold of a #2 washer finally - replacing that one missing washer made a WORLD of difference (as I'm sure several of you knew it would).  The table still now runs evenly in both directions.