1970s Zenith All-in-one Stereo with record player issues

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Olorin67

this is the stuff, I will probably try something cheaper if I ever need more, though.

Yeah, I don't think I could afford $30 a pop just for a small 4 or 5 oz. bottle of lubricant when I can just get something like Lithium grease for $6 for a 30 oz. tube and is just as effective.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Yeah, I don't think I could afford $30 a pop just for a small 4 or 5 oz. bottle of lubricant when I can just get something like Lithium grease for $6 for a 30 oz. tube and is just as effective.

Lithium grease is NOT the stuff to use - it reacts with pot metal (a magnesium/zinc alloy, what the cam gear is made out of) and causes it to break-up through cavitation (gets cavities /holes from the pot metal alloying with the lithium). The aviation industry learned this, and shared the study.

The cam gear is BSR-specific, so Lithium might be a good choice for other constructs, but for anything with a pot-metal product, keep it away.

PHONOLUBE - sold at MCM, AES and other fine distributors, and useable on all phono mechanisms. One tube is about 8 or 9 bucks, lasts years. I still have mine I bought in 1983 or 1984...

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

Lithium grease is NOT the stuff to use - it reacts with pot metal (a magnesium/zinc alloy, what the cam gear is made out of) and causes it to break-up through cavitation (gets cavities /holes from the pot metal alloying with the lithium). The aviation industry learned this, and shared the study.

The cam gear is BSR-specific, so Lithium might be a good choice for other constructs, but for anything with a pot-metal product, keep it away.

PHONOLUBE - sold at MCM, AES and other fine distributors, and useable on all phono mechanisms. One tube is about 8 or 9 bucks, lasts years. I still have mine I bought in 1983 or 1984...

Well that's funny because that's all the local repair guy uses on all of the record players he repairs, and I'm pretty sure that most of the record players he's repaired had the cam gears you're talking about, but I'm not sure. Although most of the record players he repairs are the single play component record players from the 1970s on which more than likely don't have cam-gears made of pot-metal.
Anyways Pot-metal I think is kind of a poor choice to use for high stress parts like cam-gears or tone-arms because its such a brittle metal and breaks very easily.

I take it that by the mid 1970s when this Zenith radio was made Voice of Music was out of business?
Also why did Zenith discontinue their high-end belt-driven record changer after only being made for a couple of years? I remember seeing a Zenith/Allegro Console Stereo with 8-Track Tape Recorder in it from about 1972 at the local antique mall and the record player in it was a Zenith Belt-driven record changer.

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Well that's funny because that's all the local repair guy uses on all of the record players he repairs, and I'm pretty sure that most of the record players he's repaired had the cam gears you're talking about, but I'm not sure. Although most of the record players he repairs are the single play component record players from the 1970s on which more than likely don't have cam-gears made of pot-metal.
Anyways Pot-metal I think is kind of a poor choice to use for high stress parts like cam-gears or tone-arms because its such a brittle metal and breaks very easily.

I take it that by the mid 1970s when this Zenith radio was made Voice of Music was out of business?
Also why did Zenith discontinue their high-end belt-driven record changer after only being made for a couple of years? I remember seeing a Zenith/Allegro Console Stereo with 8-Track Tape Recorder in it from about 1972 at the local antique mall and the record player in it was a Zenith Belt-driven record changer.

Pot metal was the perfect choice - low cost, high durability, and easily molded to a precise shape. Delrin (what VCR cam gears are made of) wasn't around, and steel would require extensive surface finishing. Most non-factory trained techs go with what they can get away with, most never obtaining a manufacturer manual of any sort to consult for proper maintenance. I've seen turntables come in with all sorts of home or amateurish "repairs" that did not solve the problem, and created more problems. BSR specified two lubes - phono oil (sold by GC and Rawn) and Phonolube, sold by GC. For cleaning, they specified carbon tet, but you couldn't get that in the states, so we used varsol or naptha, depending on what we had. Dual suggested lighter fluid, which is naptha, so we were in the ball park with our degreasing/cleaning.

In the 80s, we could get the BSR 4 speed changers and wood deck for 24.95 at the distributor. One jigsaw, and you could swap out the old, unsupported turntable in a stereo with a new BSR with Tetrad cartridge. They were workhorse changers, for cheap - and damn easy to troubleshoot and repair with the turntable jig.

Zenith discontinued all of their stereo equipment due to dumping by the Japanese companies - it led to the demise of a lot of US consumer electronics companies. There was no one outside factor greater than the dumping in eliminating the Allegro and home audio line for Zenith.