Any help much appreciated. I bought my Pathe Gem about a year ago (with no former knowledge of home projection) and fell in love with it and the Pathe archive.
I have used it often over that year, oiling and keeping it as clean as I could and it has run beautifully.
However last night (as fate would have it just before a load of friends were coming round to watch some films)the motor suddenly got slower, faster, and then stopped. It won't come back on.
Since I first bought it whenever you power the projector up you could hear the hum of the motor even before increasing the speed. Now that sound is gone.
There is power flowing to the lamp which still works.
In the day before it stopped I had run it for a few hours without issue, except that, on a couple occasions the motor didn't kick in but a quick rotate of the screw on the front connected to the drive belt kicked it straight back in. (the only time I've ever had to do that too).
I'm obviously desperate to get it running again but am no electritian or mechanic and am scared of damaging it. Is there anyone/ any business who could help with this, or know of anyone? Obviously happy to pay for any help if needbe!
Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007
posted August 27, 2017 04:03 AM
I very much regret to say this, but it sounds as if the motor has now died. The motor, designed to run at 180 volts, was always one of the weak points in the Gem/Son projector design.
Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007
posted August 27, 2017 04:16 AM
The big problems, John, are the small physical size of the motor, and the voltage with which it is designed to work with. You could try some small electrical firm who specialise in rewiring, but no doubt that would be quite expensive.