DIY (homemade) Garrard motor mounts

[hayerjoe]

Hello everyone

Here's another DIY job I'm working on. The motor mounts on my 50s Garrard record changer were rotten, one melted the others split and also a little goey. I can get replacements from US, but with postage costs they become very pricey so I thought I'd make my own as the principle is just to isolate the vibration and noise of the motor from the deck chassis which could get picked up via the pickup etc

I was very lucky to find the perfect grommets, the centre hole matched exactly the brass shaft that runs inside the Garrard mounts, and the grommets also fit in the chsssis mounting holes with just 0.5mm of slack (even better fit than the official Garrard I think). So that was horizontal movement well managed. Then I had to address the vertical movement. This from a suspension/isolation point of view is not so critical but the height is important to level the motor so it squarely hits the idler wheel at the right place on the stepped spindle

I achieved this by using fat o-rings, this can adjust the height quite accurately. A washer was required to ensure the o-rings stay firmly in place. I used a shakeproof washer as it was the only M6 washer I had, but a plain washer would be fine. Shakeproof washers look quite good though!

See attached photos of the DIY mounts in place, they seem to work very well. They are quite firm but perhaps I'm comparing them to all my other decks that have 60 year old mounts, maybe brand new they were just as firm?

So what do you think about my DIY mounts? see any problems?

My only concern is are they too rigid? interestingly by loosening the bolts I can make the whole thing less rigid so I do have some adjustability in my design, especially if i had nyloc lock nuts (which I don't as they are probably BSF) but when set I can just use thread lock

Look forward to your comments and questions

thanks
Joe

[joebog1]

Looks to me like it will work perfectly.
On decks of that style I used just the grommets and washers, to set the height and hollow spacers to make up any sideplay. I didnt use the origional brass spacer, as the spacers worked to do that.
I have been collecting wafer switches all my life and have quite a collection, mostly gathered from ancient test equipment or very poor condition radios, so nothing was wasted, so to speak.
Old test equipment also have a supply of spacers available.

Best of luck

Joe

[Edward Huggins]

Just trying to work out which 1950s Garrard Autochanger this applies to - a RC120/4H?

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by joebog1

Looks to me like it will work perfectly.
On decks of that style I used just the grommets and washers, to set the height and hollow spacers to make up any sideplay. I didnt use the origional brass spacer, as the spacers worked to do that.
I have been collecting wafer switches all my life and have quite a collection, mostly gathered from ancient test equipment or very poor condition radios, so nothing was wasted, so to speak.
Old test equipment also have a supply of spacers available.

Best of luck

Joe

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not familiar with the spacers you're talking about, can you point me at a sample? sounds interesting. thanks

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

Just trying to work out which 1950s Garrard Autochanger this applies to - a RC120/4H?

Amazing bit of detective work there, yes you are correct it's a Garrard RC120, but the same mounts are on many other Garrard such a RC121, and slightly smaller versions on the Autoslim series and subsequent 1025/2025s

That said the principle should be the same for almost any mount, find the tightest fit grommet, then adjust the height via o-rings, washers or a combination of both. The key is to get as close a fit as possible with each component, so the grommet must be tight on the bolt or sleeve and in the chassis, and washers and o-ring should be a good fit as well. Makes the whole thing act as one rather than a collection of badly fitting bits!

[PaulR]

It's good to know the dimensions of the grommet. I have bought several "selection boxes" of them and used the few ones that fit.