After a horrible moving experience...

[bubus]

my beloved M111 was delivered (Chicago to Houston) last Sunday.

Before the moving I locked the generator, etc. When they got the organ to the apartment, I saw 2 of the bolts and washers on the floor and I started to sweat...Oh my God...

Also, as you can see from the picture, there were several of those U shaped pieces that I have no idea where do they belong and what's the purpose of those parts.(bass pedals?)

http://www.salvadorsevita.com/hammondparts.jpg

I opened the back and the 4 generator bolts were missing, along with the washers and springs. The generator was sitting on the panel, it looked fine from above.

I managed to find the springs, attached them to make the generator to float again, installed the bolts and washers and voila, the organ was sounding almost as good as before until last night: I was playing with the drawbars and found 1 note missing; it's the second F (from left to right) of the upper keyboard.It doesn't work with the 16' drawbar. It does work with all the other drawbars. The same F with the same drawbar (16') on the lower keyboard works

Also, there's no sound on the last high octave (both keyboards) with the last 4 drawbars open.(perc is not enabled). I've noticed that some notes have less volume and the sound comes and goes, etc. What I'm upset about this is that, before the moving, everything was working.

Could you please guys tell me what to do to get it back to life and how to start troubleshooting it? There's a claim I'm going to file with the insurance company ($0.60 x Lb) and, given the fact that the organ is almost 250 Lbs, I will have enough money to pay an in house call from a local tech.(if the insurance company pays)

Thank you very much.

[Bruno Primas]

Hi Bubus,

Those "U-shaped" pieces are used as shims under the top of the organ to keep it level. When you look inside from the back, towards the 2 uppercorners, there should be bolts that hold the top on. If youtake these out, you should be able to ltilt the back of the top and disengage it from the clips on the front. The "U-shaped" things sitbetween the back shelf and the top, with the bolts passing through the open area.Easy to do, hard to explain.

But no big deal.

As far as no sound on the last four drawbars in theupper octaves,spinets do not have foldback, so the notes"run out".Do a search on this forum, and you will figure it out.

As for the 16' drawbar missing a note, it could be a dirty contact. Play thatnote repeatedly,staccato-like, and see if it comes back. Or.....you could have lost a wire on the tone generator during travelsince it came loose during shipping. Check along the edge where the wires are connected and see if any of the have come apart.

That will give you something to do for awhile...

Bruno

[bubus]

Thanks Bruno.

I've just played that F with the 16' drawbar and there was some sound coming out of it but after a couple of minutes the sound went mute.

[Bruno Primas]

Hmmmmm....

Try this....only pull out the 8' drawbar, (upper manual), and play the 1st F. If you hear a tone, then it should be a dirty busbar for the 2nd F on the 16'. If you don't hear a tone, then you have a wire off of the tone generator. I have gone to Hammondwiki to find out which contact that particular tone uses.

Hope this helps.

Bruno

[bluetantra]

It really sounds like just a dirty contact. I second Bruno's advice of repeatedly playing the key stacatto-like to clean it; this was also the advice Hammond put in the service manual. Don't use a lot of force, though. The melamine keys are notoriously brittle where they are screwed to the metal key channel underneath. If this doesn't work and also if the solder joint where the wire connects to the generator is OK, the next step is to turn the bussbar adjuster, which moves a fresh section of the bussbars under the contacts.

A friend broughtthe 1966 M-143 I'd bought off eBay a couple of years ago from Virginia to Louisiana in the back of a pickup without locking down the tone generator at all. The generator had come loose from the two springs at one end and was still supported by the two springs at the other end. After I replaced a bad tube and got the squealing generator quieted (only $1 for the organ, sold as non-working- hahahahahaha!), I was amazed to find that there were no missing notes after its rough trip. Theseorgans are built like tanks. Whatever your problem turns out to be, it's not difficult to fix.

[bubus]

Well, it seems it was a dirty contact. I had to pull and push the busbar several times, some notes began to sound scratchy but, after the staccato technique, they've started sounding again.

New issue/question: I've instaled the 4 bolts down on the generator but the washers won't screw, no matter the position; also, I've found only 2 out of 4: what could be happening that they won't screw on the bolt? Is there another part missing? Where can I find/get 2 washers?

Thanks again.

[skookum88]

bubus,

Those washers won't screw on the bolt because they're not threaded. They are washers, not nuts. The bolts screw into threaded holes on the bottom of the tone generator. If your TG is properly suspended by the springs (they are there, right?)at all four corners, it will "float" freely when not locked down, and be firmly attached to the shelf when it is.

Check out this picture (courtesy of HammondWiki):

The stock "T-washers" are hard to find, but you canreplace them withcommon "fender" washers:

Use ones that are 1.5to 2 inches across (and with a hole that's small enough to prevent the head of the bolt from passing through it).

Any missing (or all of the) bolts can be replaced with 1.5 or 2 inch-longmachine screws (or any boltswith a #10-32 thread).

[bubus]

Hi and thanks.

Where can I get those "fender" washers?

[skookum88]

In the fastener section of (pretty well) any hardware store...(orin a buddy's"miscellaneous"stash