Need help with motor noise (Thorens TD 160 turntable)

[drabina]

This Thorens TD 160 turntable is in pretty good shape but the motor makes noise when switched to 33 speed. There is no noise when switched to 45. Noise is present with platter, without, with belt and without the belt. Here is a sample I recorded:

Sample noise - video

The noise is a bit squeakier than I think it appears on the video. For a full disclosure, the belt is pretty worn but as I mentioned, the noise appears even without the belt on the pulley.

Any ideas?

 

[catBot]

Badly worn bearing in the motor.
You can try to clean it throughly, relubricate and install 90° rotated (clockwise or anticlockwise if the motor's stator is "square"-looking) so that less worn parts of the bearing would get the belt's load force.

 

[drabina]

Badly worn bearing in the motor.
You can try clean it throughly, relubricate and install 90° rotated (clockwise or anticlockwise if the motor's stator is "square"-looking) so that less worn parts of the bearing would get the belt's load force.

Thank you for replying. I will try to disassemble the motor and check the bearing if I can. Though if I can't fix it and looking at motor prices on Ebay, another Thorens may be lost in the recycling bin.

 

[catBot]

I think, it is not necessary to disassemble the motor, just use lots of bensene or kerosene on its' axis, - untill all the dirt comes out from the bearings. Then apply new grease. The main idea of my advise is to put motor back with the stator turned either side 90°, so that the worn part of the bearing is not loaded by the belt.
Of course, a new motor, with zero mileage on it, is better solution.

 

[gadget73]

I can't run the video but is it a knocking noise?

If so, here's the fix for it

Thorens Turntable Motor Spindle Support Kit Eliminate Knocking - Vinyl Nirvana - Vintage AR and Thorens Turntable Sales, Parts, and Restorations

The kit consists of an machined nylon housing with a stainless steel adjustable pin featuring a stainless steel ball bearing tip. The stainless steel pin has an internal spring that keeps consistent tension on the ball bearing, which in turn supports the motor's spindle. The bearing is...

vinylnirvana.com

INSIDE A THORENS TD160 MOTOR

Hi i was just wondering if someone could offer help opening up a thorens td160 motor in need of a repair. After reading the thread below i have some questions https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/inside-the-thorens-td-16x-motor.829672/ From what i understand from that thread, to...

audiokarma.org

shows what they look like internally. I've never done this to mine so I can offer no direct experience with the process.

 

[Blue Shadow]

the belt is pretty worn

That must not be a Thorens belt because as they get worn they make start up a push assisted operation or the belt falls off when changing speeds.

Your start up is so quick I think that belt is WAY too tight that might have led to the suspected warn bearing. Maybe a good cleaning and rotating the motor so that a different section of the bearing is closest to the platter will solve the problem, IDK, but catBot thinks that will work.

The correct Thorens belt is spendy, $30 at Q-audio or cheaper from Dave at vinylnirvana. One advantage of the Thorens belt is dead on speed accuracy that no other belt seems to have...some like the Thakker belt from Europe.

 

[catBot]

rotating the motor so that a different section of the bearing is closest to the platter will solve the problem, IDK, but catBot thinks that will work.

It will work - as a temporary, urgent measure to hide this issue and sell this defective TT to some unfortunate lamer.
If this TT is so dear, I'd try to replace the motor (but personally me - I hate all non-direct-driven TTs).

 

[gadget73]

Its usually not that the bearings end up egg-shaped, its that the thrust surfaces wear and allow excessive axial travel. Rotating the motor relative to the load won't change anything there.

The glue-on doodad that provides external thrust surface, or opening the motor up and adding some shims to make up for the worn bushing will also do it. Were this mine I'd probably be tempted to chuck the end bells of the motor in the lathe, give them a quick skim cut to make it flat again, and add shims to make up for the removed material. Or maybe if I was feeling fancy I might find or make new bearings.

 

[drabina]

Thanks for all the replies. I think the issue was not as severe as it sounded. I have added some oil to the top and bottom of the motor and everything quieted down. The motor is silent and even with the worn out belt it moves with only 1% of the speed variation. I will order a new belt though.

 

[kgetchmaine]

Resurrecting an older thread to add my recent trials with motor noise when in 33 rpm. Was getting the bearing noise and oiling alone was not helping.
I pulled the motor and rotated as suggested and the noise is now gone! We will see how long this will last but so far, so good!