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Hi there,
from what you wrote I take it that You´re using a rotary with ball ends at least on one side of the rods. Usually the noise comes from worn-out bearings. All I can tell You is to use oil of high viscosity, more viscous than the usual valve oil. The more viscous the oil, the longer it will stay in the gaps of the bearings and the better it will dampen the speed of the parts colliding. Motor oil will do, if they are really worn out You might want to try chainsaw oil, which is much stickier. I wouldn´t worry too much about the valves getting sluggish.
That would be the case if you tried the machine oil INSIDE the valve, because the friction involved is a function of the area of the contact surface as well as the relative speed of the moving parts.
I used to have this old tuba from the "Before-Ball-End-Era" that was very worn out. I fixed it by wrapping tape around the pin. Have fun Hans

Make sure the bearings on both ends of the valves are oiled, I like Marvel Mystery oil but any heavier oil will do. Make sure the screws are tight that hold the cork or neoprene. I like STP motor oil treatment for the ball joints.

I'm using some general purpose grease in the sockets of the ball joints on end of the rods.... (Yamaha YBB641) And I think having dry bumpers also helps. I try to keep the excess valve oil off of them. When I first got this instrument one of the French Horn players told me the valves should swim in oil.

tubamirum wrote:Make sure the bearings on both ends of the valves are oiled, I like Marvel Mystery oil but any heavier oil will do. Make sure the screws are tight that hold the cork or neoprene. I like STP motor oil treatment for the ball joints.

Don't use STP. It is not a lubricant, but rather a viscosity-increasing additive for motor oil. If you want to use heavier oil than 50-weight motor oil, use 90-weight gear oil. STP is thick and gooey, but it does not have lubricating qualities.

In my opinion, if the valve bearings are so loose that you need somthing heavier than 50-weight oil to quieten them, they need to be properly repaired. A good technician can remove the rotors, swedge the bearing shells, and refit the rotors.

I would not assume that just because it has a ball linkage the ball linkage can't be the problem. I replace ball linkage on my old Cerveny, after finding that the balls they used were far too small and wore out almostly immediately. I also replaced the metal ball linkage on a Musica--they were worn out and could not be adjusted to be both quiet and smooth. And the old white ball linkages on late-70's Miraphones are notorious for wearing out and becoming unadjustible. I replaced them all with Du-Bro ball links and solved the problem in every case.

There is a way to trace the noise. Hold the stop arm against a bumper with your fingers without touching the linkages, and rattle the finger paddle. If it's the linkage making the noise, you'll know it. If you don't get noise or rattling with that test, grasp the stop arm between finger and thumb and rattle it side to side. Clanking with this test reveals worn bearings. If you don't get noise there, either, then check to make sure the stop plate is screwed tight on the casing, and that the rear cap is not rattling. Finally, grasp the stop arm again, and rattle it in and out instead of side to side. If you get a rattle there, the backplate of the valve may have been knocked a little loose. That can be quickly fixed by a repair guy, or remove the rear cap and tape the rear plate home with the wooden handle of a very small mallet. If the valve binds, a couple of light taps on the rotor shaft (remove the stop arm first) with a small rawhide mallet should straighten it.

Again, if any of that scares you, take it to a technician.

If you find you do have to have the bearings swedged, then make sure you keep them oiled in the future. I'm not sure VMI 2103's are really old enough to have worn-out rotary valves by now unless they have not been properly oiled.

Rick "debunking the STP myth" Denney

I have been using STP for 25 plus years and have not had any complaints. Larry Minick also used it, ask Roger Bobo or Self Or Pokorny, or Jeff Reynolds.

Jordle wrote:I've been noticing recently that my rotary valves on my VMI 2103 are loud

You are getting some good advise and some bad advise. Do yourself a favor and take your horn to a QUALIFIED repairman and have him determine the source of the noise.

tubamirum wrote:I have been using STP for 25 plus years and have not had any complaints. Larry Minick also used it, ask Roger Bobo or Self Or Pokorny, or Jeff Reynolds.

Fine, I'm glad it has worked for you. But that doesn't change the fact that STP is not oil, and does not have any lubricating qualities. It won't oil things any better than will, say, saliva. That's just not what it is made to do. It might make it feel smooth, but it will not protect it from wear like even lightweight oil.

There was a practice in the engine building world that used STP as an assembly lube. Lots of engines died young because of the excessive wear in the first five minutes of running a new engine without any actual lubrication. It's not made for this; don't use it.

Frankly, motor oil isn't made for this, either, and I don't think I'd be interested in having the additives used in motor oils that close to my mouth. To each his own. I'll continue to use regular machine oils that are made for moving machine parts and not for extremely hot internal combustion engines. We don't need all those detergents and viscosity modifiers.

Rick "not guessing about the actual formulation of STP" Denney

Rick wrote:

Don't use STP. It is not a lubricant, but rather a viscosity-increasing additive for motor oil.




Frankly, motor oil isn't made for this, either, and I don't think I'd be interested in having the additives used in motor oils that close to my mouth. To each his own. I'll continue to use regular machine oils that are made for moving machine parts and not for extremely hot internal combustion engines. We don't need all those detergents and viscosity modifiers.

Rick is correct and as usual is giving excellent advice.

Mark

If it turns out that it is an oiling problem, I suggest hetman's bearing and linkage oil.

mTaUrBkA wrote:If it turns out that it is an oiling problem, I suggest hetman's bearing and linkage oil.

DITTO

I use Hetman light rotor oil for the rotors. I use Selmer pink goo for the slides. Happy with both. I use blue juice down the slides in my french horn about once a week, and that keeps the valves fast. YMMV.

MA

What do tubenetters usually use for slides?

I don't know if there is a "usually". It depends on how the slides fit and are aligned. I only need valve oil on mine.

Noise can be caused by bumpers that are worn out enough to let metal parts hit each other that aren't supposed to hit. Hard bumpers can cause noise too; but I wouldn't expect a bumper that was fine a year ago (for example) to harden up by the next year.

I lube the rotors and linkage with Break Free CLP.

MW215588 wrote:I picked up some binak rotary oil for my pt-6 the other day. I think binak oil is good oil; It made my rotarys on my horn lightning fast

I'm happy for you that Binak worked; my experience with Binak Piston oil was that it was worse than nothing - caused the pistons to bind with even the slightest contamination from moisture.
Al Cass worked fine in the same horn, after I got all the Binak off.

Hetman on rotaries, Selmer pink goo on slides in my Cerveny.