Cheapest Filmosound Worm Gear Money Can Buy

[Gunier J. Kintgen]

So I got a Filmosound recently, & I've noticed the wow & flutter on the audio has been getting pretty bad. I knew it had a cracked worm gear when I bought it, but the seller's picture of it only showed a hairline fracture. When I got it up & running the first time I couldn't tell anything was wrong with the audio, sounded fine then. But as of late, I've noticed it's been getting worse, particuarly on my educational films. I made a direct recording of the sound through the external speaker jack so you can hear it for yourself:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QLE...ew?usp=sharing
There's clips of 3 films in the recording, "Autum" by Centron Films, "We Discover The Dictionary" by Coronet Films, & "Sleep for Health" by E-B Films. Notice the extreme wow & flutter in the recording, it never was this bad!
If I had to suspect why, I'd say the crack in the worm gear is only getting worse. It also could be because all of these films are slightly warped, but still. I gotta get a fresh worm gear in there, only problem is I don't have 80+ dollars to spend on a replacement. Heck, that's half of what I paid for the projector in the first place! Does anyone here know how I can obtain a fresh worm gear for a Bell & Howell Filmousound 1592 for dirt-cheap? Any & all help is apreceated; Thanks!

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

The usual suspects are:

https://van-eck.net/en/product/bell_...0-2500_series/

https://van-eck.net/en/product/bell_...0-2500_series/

http://www.rcsclassic16mm.com/bellhowell.html

https://ian-partridge.com/new_bh_worm.html

https://www.urbanskifilm.com/projectors.html

Good luck with your quest!

[Michael Piquemal]

Hello Gunier, That doesn't sound like the gear to me, I fixed a B&H with that sound problem for a friend, the problem is in the sound drum area, the arms that put pressure on the film to keep it tight around the sound drum, get stiff from lack of lubrication and cause the wow problem, check there first and I'm sure that you will find them stiff, the two arms should move freely up ad down as well both arms should be able to move up and down, as well as move up and down as a complete assembly. Regarding changing the main gear, it's a major job as you have to strip the projector right down to get it out, and then reassemble, making sure to time the sprocket gears properly, otherwise the autoload doesn't work. Check those sound arms first.
Regards Michael