Newbie with his first M3!

[KurtP]

Hi all, I recently picked up my first Hammond, an M3 with an added reverb mod. It was owned by a man that played it regularly in a church, when he retired he took it home and now it's in my happy hands! I have some experience with electronics, having re-capped guitar amps and built a Music From Outer Space Noise Toaster, among other small projects. Thankfully YouTube has been there to get me ready for Hammond ownership!

I'm new to the world of Hammonds and I'm not much of a player but I've been bitten by the bug, for sure. The first thing I did was lock the TWG before transporting it home. Then I flipped the locking nuts, oiled with Hammond oil I had per-ordered in advance (white bottle with blue text) once for the TWG and once for the vibrator scanner. This organ was dry as a bone. After a couple of days I re-oiled the TWG and a couple of days later I went to start it.

It grinded like a bad starter motor on a 50 year old car, but after a few attempts it started! The high end is pretty muffled, I believe that's the 60 year old original caps. I may cross that bridge down the road. The drawbars are super dirty and crackly, looking in the back I can see that dust has collected all around the drawbars. Crazy how much there is. I'm looking forward to disassembling and cleaning them.

After playing the organ for a while, I'm still having the same grinding sounds when I start it, 3-8 times before (I assume, correct me if I'm wrong) the run motor engages. I've uploaded a sample of the sound the organ makes when starting. I hope I attached it correctly. I went back and added a couple of drops of oil to the run motor, hopefully not too much, but that hasn't helped. I also cut a piece of cloth and thumb-tacked it over the TWG locking nut that's right above the amp, I imagine a drop off of that wouldn't be great for a rectifier tube. :-P

Can anyone take a guess as to the best way to tackle this grinding sound? I want to keep playing every day, but I definitely don't want to damage and mechanical parts.

Thanks!

Kurt.

[KeithB]

Congratulations on the M3! I had the same problem when I first got an M3 a couple of years ago, at least it sounded similar. The start motor shaft was not moving all the way forward to fully engage the TWG gear before the starter motor spun up. Thus, the starter motor shaft gear was grinding against the TWG gear. Basically, the starter motor shaft is moving too slow such that the gear starts spinning too fast to engage the TWG gear, and instead just grinds against the gear when the shaft moves far enough forward. I lubricated the starter motor shaft with Hammond oil and exercised it a bunch (moved it in an out manually) to make sure it was sliding back and forth freely. I suspect you have some gunk or residue on the shaft that is not letting it move out as freely as it should. I'd clean it and then oil it directly and make sure it moves freely. It should then engage the TWG gear every time when you flip the start switch.

[enor]

The start motor itself might be sluggish engaging, but a far far more common problem (that causes the above problem) is the bendix gear in the tone generator - the cog wheel that the start motor is supposed to "mate to" when engaging. If this cog wheel doesn't slide freely back and forth on its shaft you will have this issue. 95% of the time, when the above starting problem arises, that bendix gear is the culprit. Oil its shaft so that it can slide freely back and forth.

[KeithB]

Yes, now that you mention it, enor, I think I had that issue too.

[KurtP]

Thanks KeithB and Enor, I oiled the shaft on the bendix gear and every time now it starts right up, in fact it's only grinded once in the last 5 days, and I've repeatedly just to double check. Thanks guys!

[ScottGirvan]

Congrats on your M3.

[KurtP]

Congrats on your M3.

Thank you, loving it!