Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Strange FP-16 Problem

This is topic Strange FP-16 Problem in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005650

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-17-2003, 12:10 AM:

Heres a strange one for you FP-16 dudes. The machine here at the Sun Valley Opera House is pretty darn old. Its only used to run a 16mm print of Sun Valley Serenade once a day but has been in use for several decades. The machine has been well maintained through out its life.

Drive in this case is by 1/4" wide timing belt. The problem is that the drive belt idlers are making a howling noise during operation thats pretty darn loud. Pressing a screwdriver blade against either of the idler bosses quiets it right down and belt tension matters littlein relation to noise level. New belts make no difference, both idlers received new bearings today with little change. I doubt the problem is in the intermittent as its all bushing...no ball bearings here. The mechanism seems to run just fine. Pulled the drive motor apart and found the bearings somewhat dried out, the belt end bearing was really dirty too but neither were noisy nor in awful shape. Will replace them while its apart but I doubt its that either. Before I replace all the pulleys in the thing I thought I'd see if anyone ever had this type of problem before?

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 12-17-2003, 12:33 AM:

Years ago we had one that had the idlers go ecentric and it made a lot of noise

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-17-2003, 07:51 AM:

Yea, I was thinking about that possibility here. One idler is plastic but looks to be good. The other idler in this machine is a steel timing pulley. I think I'll probably order that idler today.
Mark

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-18-2003, 11:08 PM:

The new motor bearings arrived and I reassembled the motor and the projector. There were all new bearings in the idlers, and now the motor. There is now no loud howling sound from the belt and idlers. It appears that the idler bearings were 50% at fault and the motor bearings were 50% at fault in this case. With it all back together and proper belt tension it was actually very, very quiet. I did talk to Kinoton yesterday and they said they couldn't remember having to put bearings in an FP-16 motor before, or even taking one apart for that matter. With an arbor press its quite easy to do. Kinoton also reccomended applying some Black Moly Grease to the belt to help quiet it down even further. This is in contrary to what should generally be done to a rubber timing belt, but after all was back together and running as it always had before I went ahead and applied a tiny bit of Black Moly Grease to the tooth side of the belt in a few spots then turned the mechanism by hand to distribute it. This did get rid of the last tiny bit of belt noise and its actually quieter running than its ever been, in fact the ORC 1000 on the back of it is far louder than the projector. Of the 8 or 10 FP-16's that I've maintained in past years this was definately an odd one but a fun challenge.

Mark @ CLACO

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 12-18-2003, 11:34 PM:

odd re a timing belt
most of theFP16's up here used a narrow v belt and a belt lube would make it w lot queter

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-19-2003, 07:06 AM:

Apparently all of the US import FP-16's used this timing belt and idler set up. The idlers on these machines are mounted on studs that bolt to the rear of the column, not to an idler bracket like is shown in the manual.
Mark

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 12-19-2003, 07:34 AM:

The FP-16 I used to have had a timing belt... odd sized one, too. Couldn't find a OEM replacement, and had to end up buying the high $$$ one from Kinoton!

[Mad]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-19-2003, 07:23 PM:

Yea Tim,
The manual lists two types of tinimg belts. One is the European metric type and the other is the U.S. standard X-L type.
Mark @ CLACO