Help me fix a turntable, please!

Generally, unless the ends are the problem, you would replace the entire tone arm wiring loom. It is usually very fine wire and is hard to deal with each individual wire. I bought some GC brand tone arm wire looms a few years ago. It has 4 conductor wires and a wire shield around the bundle. You are probably find that it is the external wires.

 

I really think its time to remove the turntable base. Carefully remove stylus, any anti skate cord etc, and secure tonearm.
You may find it straight away. Its unusual to lose both channels.
Good luck.

 

I hope you're right. I checked out a couple of videos and the RCA replacement for the Technics would be much easier. I actually have an extra set of those cables...hmmmm...

 

Thanks Thorensman, I've already removed the base and looked around. Nothing looked out of the ordinary as far as the where the RCA's and (from what little I could see) the tonearm wiring.

Anyway, I have a friend at work that said he would be willing to help me with the soldering. I'm taking it in tomorrow and see what happens. Should be fun! Thanks for the encouragement!!! It's not in the trash heap yet!!!

 

I had a '70s Technics a few years ago that kept losing one channel unless I bent the cables just so. There must have been a broken wire within the insulation. Once I replaced the interconnects the problem was solved.

It doesn't seem like that much of a stretch to me for both cables to have gone south.

 

Excellent news! Keep us informed.
I had a phase inversion once.
In other words the white , red, green and blue were wrongly connected underneath
White is left channel hot , ie centre pin of left hand interconnect.
Red is right ( hot)
Blue is left ground
Green is right ground .
These can be checked with a multimeter. You MUST DISCONNECT all 4 wires from cartridge first .

 

It is not. I see this issue occasionally repairing turntables. Sometimes cables get broken wires from previous owners. Not unusual.

 

One common failure is for the connection to the molded phono plugs to fail right at the strain relief point where the cable enters the connector. It's unusual for the L/R to both fail, but one could have failed long before the other well before you got the turntable. As others have suggested, replacing the phono plugs may be all that's needed. Good luck!

 

Lucky OP...years ago when working in the retail end of the industry a customer brought a TT in with similar issues. When one of our Techs opened the thing he found the RCA interconnects had been eaten through by a small family of mice. The TT had been in storage and you can imagine the rest. The mice living quarters were relocated and the leads replace and the TT lived to play again. Keep us posted on yours Please.

 

Looks like I have lucked out, folks! My friend at work was able to check the tonearm wires and the RCAs (with a multi-meter as described by several members here) and found there was a problem with the left channel of the RCAs. He desoldered the old RCA, put in the newer cheap RCAs I had brought, and it now works! Unfortunately, I did not get to watch him or learn to do it myself, but he promised that the next time he solders something, he would teach me. I will test it later when I get home from work and see how the table sounds...didn't have much time earlier, just enough to see that both channels worked. If everything sounds good, I will clean it up, put a new cart on it, and box it up as a gift for my friend.

I want to thank everyone that participated in this thread and helped encourage me to follow it through and get the table working. I didn't get to "fix" it all by myself, but she works now and I couldn't be happier. I'm sure my buddy will be overjoyed to listen to albums he's had in storage for decades!!!! I hope this thread is helpful to someone in the future that has the same issue. This is truly a great forum; so proud to be a part of it! Thanks again!!!!

 

$10 for broken TT
$100 for soldering equipment and supplies
Acquiring the new skill. Priceless.

 

Well in a way you did fix the TT. You worked through it, eliminate possibilities and then found someone to change out the wires. Best part of being human and social is you do not always have to do everything yourself. Well done.

 

Great!
Watch out now - depending on the cart you put on it, you may find the sound of the D1 rivals what you have!

(If you hear differences, I would like to read about your comparison, in a new thread.)

 

Hahahaha! Well, fortunately, I didn't have to pony up for the soldering equipment just yet...but I am learning new "technical" skills, instead of just smacking things like the Fonz until it works!

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Thank you, sir! I did get quite a bit of help from you fine folks. And having friends only make this hobby even better. As I mentioned, the table is a gift for one of my other friends at work. He lets me borrow all his old albums from the 70s and 80s...all the killer Hard Rock and Metal bands from back in the day. I've been cleaning them with my Spin Clean for him, then figured it would be best if he could hear them again since he no longer has a turntable. I'm sure he will be thrilled!!!!

 

Thanks JohnO, but I'm not opening THAT can of worms on here, hahaha!! The table came with an older Shure cart with a broken stylus. I put on another older Shure cart (can't remember the model) and it sounds much better than expected with my system (Conrad Johnson preamp, McCormack power amp, KEF 104/2 speakers, Morrow cables). To be fair, it sounds pretty darn good, but not quite as nice as the Rega RP6 with the Exact.

There is a bit of hum, but I'm supposing it's from the new RCAs which are not made to be used as phono cables, just regular cheapo's I got with a TV or something. I needed something to try and that's all I had on hand. It's only noticeable at the beginning/ending of sides and in between songs. When the songs are cranking, it's not a problem. Add some wine, and the hum is magically eliminated! I'll take a bit of hum over no sound any day! It's a good full-bodied sound in both channels, seems to image well and does justice to the few albums I played. I'm pretty happy with it and I'm sure my friend will be, too.

 

That can of worms is what this forum is all about. What would count is using the same cart on the turntables to be compared.

Uh-oh. The D1/D2/D3 should never have any hum - it has a separate grounding wire along with the RCA outs. Maybe that got pulled out, or do you have it? Or maybe it was broken too.

If you don't have the grounding wire I can send you the D3 service manual and tell you (to tell your friend) where to attach it, any thin covered wire, because it is hard to find the exact spot, and hard to find in the service manual. It has to be soldered on - and it would not be a big surprise if it was pulled off the board and disappeared sometime over the years.

 

It certainly would be interesting to hear the Exact on the D1! That Shure cart had much more bass than I expected it to have...hmmmm...maybe I set it up with too high of tracking force. Oh well, it sounded really good!

As for the ground wire, it was there and completely attached. I opened her up and inspected my friend's soldering work and the ground was attached. There was still the "prong" attached to the end of the ground wire that goes into the ground of the receiver...Can a ground wire have a short, too?

What I did notice, and failed to mention yesterday, was that this table was louder in volume than my other tables. For example, on my Rega or Project or Pioneer, once I hit 10 or 11 o'clock, it's pretty damn loud (I'm guessing 95 dB). With the D1 and the new RCA's, I was feeling the same loudness (probably around 95 dB or more) at only 9 o'clock-ish. Obviously, there is some difference and I'm guessing the new RCA cable has something to do with that. Should I have put on a phono-designed RCA? Probably, but I used what I had and she's gone now.

Anyway, when I gave my friend the table today (we both work at the same high school), I had my kids box, wrap, and deliver it in the middle of class, and I made them sing Happy Birthday (it wasn't his birthday). He was absolutely flooded to get it!!! All the kids thought it was the nicest thing in the world to give someone a gift when it wasn't even their birthday or Christmas! Ha! Pretty cool. Totally made his day...and mine!!!

 

Yes, the ground could be broken too, inside the wire. Did your friend check that too? I wonder about this because the original RCA cables were broken inside.
The cheaper RCA/phono cable you used isn't a real problem, unless it was the most cheap of cheap, it's probably nearly what it came with originally. I doubt it was the hum problem, but, maybe? Your friend might not have a hum problem depending how and where he connects and positions it.
If it's louder, that's the Shure vs. your Exact or the others. That Shure must have a higher output, in general older carts would have higher output. That's OK.

Yes, overall, that was a very nice thing to do. Pretty Cool!

 

I didn't mention anything about the groud to my friend that fixed it, because at the time it wasn't making any sound and I didn't know. I did't notice the hum until I tried it at home. Anyway, I told the friend that I gave it to about the hum, and he has some soldering skills...so he can fix it if he chooses. He hasn't had a chance to hook it up yet, but should this weekend.

Well, the RCAs were the freebies that you get whenever you buy DVD player/radio, etc., so not the greatest quality. I also hooked it up to my tube preamp, so maybe it's picking up something from the tubes..who knows! When it's cranked, you can't notice it and it sounds pretty sweet. I think he said he would be using an older Onkyo stereo system, probably from the late 80s or early 90s. He's not really into gear (lucky for him!) and will definitely not be obsessing over the hum like we do (it would drive me nuts!!!!).

My buddy grew up in San Antonio during the late 70s and early 80s, and back the day San Antonio was the "Heavy Metal Capitol of the World," haha. His friend's dad worked at one of the concert venues so he got to work concessions and went to every show in town: UFO, KISS, Ted Nugent, Motley Crue, Ozzy, AC/DC, and all that. He tells some great stories and I am totally jealous. He also lets me borrow all of his old records...all orginal pressings!!! So as thanks, I clean them all on my Spin Clean. But now he can play them himself!!!!