take the leg mount apart and clean and lube all the parts the t handle threads clean and lube them also that should fix the problem, had this problem with my nitron black kit from this era also.

Thank you for the reply. I have to change the heads tonight anyway, so it would be the perfect time to do that. I'll give it a shot and let you know how I make out. Do you have any preference on lube to use? Graphite? 3-in-1? I always keep away from WD40 as it gums up after a while and attracts dirt.

e. I use barkeepers friend to clean the parts it comes in a powder I use an appropriate size plastic tub ,warm water sprinkle some of the barkeepers soak the parts for a few minutes dry them off lube them then it should be good to go this stuff will make your chrome parts shine for days.

Interesting, My Gretsch memory locks had little tabs on them that fit into the bracket so that the legs can't rotate. The problem with them is that they deform when you get them tight enough to grip the smooth portion of the leg and then it is nearly impossible to move them if need be. You have to pry them apart somehow.

I've never had trouble with those floor tom brackets on the smooth part of the legs. You might try and extra washer or two on the eyebolt. That seems to help on Ludwig's similarly operating brackets. Another thing to look at is if the casing of the bracket is deformed at all from being overtightened. I've had one I bought that was this way. The side of the bracket casting was bent inward enough so that the T nut couldn't tighten down enough to hold anything. Again an extra washer or two might help.

The ultimate solution would be to replace them all with the newer style clamping type unit, which will bolt on using the same holes, but a set of those brackets would likely cost you a small fortune.

KO, mine are the same as well - they have the tabs on the memory locks. With that said, I noticed that any accidental side motion (i.e. bump) on the floor tom will still make them pop out and allow the leg/s to turn. I prefer mine to be completely stable. Unfortunately, the clean and lube did not work. I also added washers to no avail - in fact I stole the washers from a Ludwig tom mount!

KO, you do bring up a valid point that I noticed about the casing and I think you are correct. My casings are slightly deformed inward which is probably the cause in this instance. Unfortunately, the casings are white cast metal which would likely break if I tried to move the casing wall back into its original position. I was able to fix one mount by removing the eye bolt and gently tapping on it with a hammer to elongate the thru hole to make it an ellipse. Now this grabs the leg tightly, but unfortunately, I could only get the eye bolt out of one mount/casing.

I am determined to gig this kit this weekend and will figure something out for the short term. I'll probably buy the newer style mounts going forward. Either way, I would like to say thank you for all of the suggestions and info. I greatly appreciate it!

I saw on another forum where a guy inverts his floor toms to get them as low as possible and still grab the knurled section of the leg. So the mounts are up top of the drum, where the knurls on the legs are. He does this all the time but definitely a short term solution in your case I'm guessing. :)

I have the same brackets and am using 1/2" round-stock for two of the legs and the boom part of a cymbal boom stand for the third. The round-stock has no knurling as would be expected but still the brackets grab it nicely.

HTH! Mitch

Here's a picture of the inverted FT.

I wanted to update this as to how I made out. KO was correct - the casing is what was really causing this to happen. If you take off the mount and look at the bottom of the white metal casing, I noticed that the casing wall on one side has an outward radius/arch and that the wall that was on the side of the wingnut was flat. It was flat because years of over-tightening had pulled it in towards the eyebolt. This in turn means the eyebolt couldn't travel far enough to dig into the floor tom leg. What did I do to solve this? I went and bought a 3/8" diameter wood dowel. I cut it just a little bit longer than the distance between the inside of the casing walls. I then used a hammer and tapped the dowel into the back of the casing(in between the groove for the eye bolt), forcing the walls to spread out to close what it was originally. As a bonus, the dowel will prevent the wall from being pulled back in! I am happy to say that all four grip very tightly Problem solved!

Here's a picture of the kit set up from today's gig. I might add that they sounded great! Thanks again for the help!

good to see you found the problem, Glad you are able to play this kit now.