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

[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.