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Thanks for reading. I have a Bell & Howell 456A Dual 8. I've been using it no problem to play a clients films in 8mm. But now I'm at the part of the footage where they switched over to a Super8 camera. My machine loads & starts to play fine, but then it goes into "jumping/clacking" after less than a minute. It appears that it is not steadily advancing the frames properly. It doesn't seem to do it so much playing in reverse.
-It does this with every Super8 reel I'm trying to play, and the film holes all look fine on all the reels I've tried.
- I tried going back to to 8mm reels and it still plays them fine (yes I am properly switching back and forth between modes depending on the format)
- I put a brand new belt on the machine. It plays the same whether its an old belt or a new one.
- I tried manually rotating the take-up reel, trying to match the velocity and/or providing extra tension to get it to go through. That sorta helps but still not clean enough)
- the pressure plate that holds the film in place certainly feels like it is providing adequate tension, and the shuttle path that the film slides through appears to be in excellent condition.
- I tried adjusting the screw that allows you to adjust the left-right positioning of the teeth/claw, pushing it too far left, and too far right, as the machine is operating, hoping to find the "sweet spot". But the "sweetest spot" I could find did not solve the problem.
-I tried measuring the claw protrusion with a little gauge that I constructed according to the manual's template. Assuming I made it right, it suggests that the claw is not coming out far enough, but when I tried to adjust the claw with a pair of pliers it didn't seem to have any affect (meaning the claw did not change it's position at all: the repair manual says to use a special tool that they sell to adjust the claw, but that was published, what, 50 years ago? and so far I've had better luck finding bigfoot than I have been finding anyone selling that tool online.
- I put my finger directly on the film shuttle (where the teeth/claws are) and manually rotated the manual knob and I could feel the claws catching and moving the frame properly each time when I did that.
And here's the kicker:
- In order to get this job done, I purchased another machine that someone was selling locally: a 471A model, which is extremely similar inside and out. and I'm having practically the SAME PROBLEM with this entirely different machine! It's not exactly the same: in this machine, the reel "freezes" or gets stuck somehow, even though all the gears are still spinning) It plays 8mm clean, but not Super8! I changed its belt, but it performed the same. I used my take-up reel from the first machine because it seemed to "take-up" better (both models have the identical take-up reel
The only difference is that my take-up reel on the new machine was having problems catching and staying "wound". But when I replaced it with the take-up reel from my old machine, it seemed to take-up no problem.
I've watched just about every "fixing an 8mm projector" repair video on youtube I could find (there's only about a dozen of them) and NONE of them seem to address having this problem. Any wisdom that anyone could impart would be like water to a weary soul! I'll provide any pics/vids anyone requests.
-It does this with every Super8 reel I'm trying to play, and the film holes all look fine on all the reels I've tried.
- I tried going back to to 8mm reels and it still plays them fine (yes I am properly switching back and forth between modes depending on the format)
- I put a brand new belt on the machine. It plays the same whether its an old belt or a new one.
- I tried manually rotating the take-up reel, trying to match the velocity and/or providing extra tension to get it to go through. That sorta helps but still not clean enough)
- the pressure plate that holds the film in place certainly feels like it is providing adequate tension, and the shuttle path that the film slides through appears to be in excellent condition.
- I tried adjusting the screw that allows you to adjust the left-right positioning of the teeth/claw, pushing it too far left, and too far right, as the machine is operating, hoping to find the "sweet spot". But the "sweetest spot" I could find did not solve the problem.
-I tried measuring the claw protrusion with a little gauge that I constructed according to the manual's template. Assuming I made it right, it suggests that the claw is not coming out far enough, but when I tried to adjust the claw with a pair of pliers it didn't seem to have any affect (meaning the claw did not change it's position at all: the repair manual says to use a special tool that they sell to adjust the claw, but that was published, what, 50 years ago? and so far I've had better luck finding bigfoot than I have been finding anyone selling that tool online.
- I put my finger directly on the film shuttle (where the teeth/claws are) and manually rotated the manual knob and I could feel the claws catching and moving the frame properly each time when I did that.
And here's the kicker:
- In order to get this job done, I purchased another machine that someone was selling locally: a 471A model, which is extremely similar inside and out. and I'm having practically the SAME PROBLEM with this entirely different machine! It's not exactly the same: in this machine, the reel "freezes" or gets stuck somehow, even though all the gears are still spinning) It plays 8mm clean, but not Super8! I changed its belt, but it performed the same. I used my take-up reel from the first machine because it seemed to "take-up" better (both models have the identical take-up reel
The only difference is that my take-up reel on the new machine was having problems catching and staying "wound". But when I replaced it with the take-up reel from my old machine, it seemed to take-up no problem.
I've watched just about every "fixing an 8mm projector" repair video on youtube I could find (there's only about a dozen of them) and NONE of them seem to address having this problem. Any wisdom that anyone could impart would be like water to a weary soul! I'll provide any pics/vids anyone requests.
) mechanical issue inside the machine for sure.
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