[ Ref. William Smith in 190312 MMDigest ]

Hi William,  From your description, "Thorens silver music box, 7x17x9,
with 40 discs," I suspect that the music box you have is a cabinet of
hand-etched or -engraved nickel silver over brass, made in India and
imported into the USA by Fred Zimbalist Company of Cleveland, Ohio,
circa 1965-1985, incorporating a Thorens Swiss AD30 4.5-inch disc
player movement (an automatic disc player with 30 teeth on the musical
comb).

It is likely lined with something similar to a walnut Formica and
contains slotted compartments, on either side of the musical mechanism,
for holding the discs, of which you likely have 4 sets of 10 = 40 discs.

In all likelihood the mechanism is fully wound and not playing for one
of 2 reasons:

(1) The nylon release gear (a.k.a. pinion gear) is cracked and is
causing the machine to jam, or

(2) the factory-installed "green" grease on the governor assembly
has dried and hardened, causing the mechanism to seize.

Assuming the most likely scenario -- a cracked release 'pinion' gear --
the short and fast answer is to install the replacement gear and steel
pinion assembly at price $35.00 plus our minimum domestic shipping and
handling fee of $7.95 = $42.95.

Included are detailed instructions for installing that gear, (without
having to take the unit apart and dealing with an expanded mainspring.

Please note that your mechanism may have other problems that you may
not be aware of until after the pinion gear is replaced. Therefore,
please give me a call before you place your parts order so I can talk
you through some simple diagnostics to determine if there might be some
other hidden problems and help you to avoid paying the handling fees
multiple times on individual part orders.

I remain most sincerely at your service,

Don Caine - Proprietor, The Music Box Repair Center Unlimited
Lomita, California
tel.: 1-310-534-1557
http://www.musicboxrepaircenter.com/