Free Hammond M3 that "doesnt work" --what am i getting myself into?

I've wanted a Hammond organ for a long long long time. This organ is in good cosmetic shape from what i can see in the pictures.

Said it did work when he took it from his fathers 10 years ago. What should i check when i get there to get it. And how much might this end up costing me?

Thank you guys so much. I really want an organ!

What about it doesn't work? Do you mean totally dead?

I used to buy L110's for the tubes in them ( most of them have barely used blackburn Mullard's for preamp tubes). I would buy them many times not working and then swap tubes for cheap tubes I already had and resell them.

I found the biggest problem they had was by far the motor that turns the tone wheel wasn't turning. Most of the time this was from just not being used for so long. Hammond's are solidly built and from what I can see the only thing that goes wrong with them is either the motor or the tubes (easy fix buy plugging in new tubes). If you get them going a good idea would be to replace the Electrolitic capacitors that are in the power supply section. They can go bad after normal use or non use after 10- 20 years.

The motor is usually a easy fix also. Just the back cover off, oil the motor where the bearings are with some light oil (3 in 1 or similar), turn the unit on and turn the motor by hand to get it started. Be carfull not to get your fingers caught though, and watch out for the run capacitor (do not touch!!)

Thank you guys for the heads up. I'm waiting for him to call me back. I'm thinking i might even buy a a100. A guy was selling some for 1500 with a leslie. But hopefully i get a call back.

no not 3 in 1 buy the right oil it is a delicate thing do a search on hammond oil.

there is plenty of online info

I just bought an M3 and put some money into it by a certified local tech.

Here's the breakdown:

The lady that sold it to me said it worked great (off Craigslist) - don't they always say that??

$250 and my bandmates went to pick it up the day of a gig.

Unfortunately, they didn't hear a grinding in the back when testing it out and it also turned out to be extremely quiet once on stage - so much so that it was practically unusable live (we are a 7 piece Floyd tribute band). The grinding sound turned out to be lack of oil over many years in the tone generator.

The tech came and changed half the tubes (most of them were bad and caused the low output), added lots of oil, replaced the power cord which was disintegrating and added a 1/4 out.

In total, I put probably $300 into it.

I know people say a perfect M3 isn't worth more than like $300, but I'd be surprised if you find any perfect ones out there...these are old organs and most I imagine have sat around a long time.

But yeah tube replacement (if necessary) and oil seem to be the biggest things to look out for.

If you only have to do that stuff and do it yourself, probably $150??