TT Pitch Control Acting Out

I played an Lp today and the pitch control didn't respond correctly, the platter speed went berserk. It had been acting up every coupla months for the last 6 months but it's a 1980 model and a shot of Contact Cleaner and some turning the knob back and forth had been taking care of the problem.

Today I walked to the TT to flip sides and caught a glimpse of the strobo; it was somewhat off, but voltage here varies wildy (no surprise there), so I just corrected and played side B. I proceeded to spray with CC and used a lot more than usual (flooded the damn thing). Kaboom ! No more speed control; this time I applied it with the TT on to watch the strobo, so I thought I'd damaged it somehow. Told my wife and she said ¨I know you, prolly you flooded it to death, let it dry up for a couple of hours and try again¨, which was met with a rolling of my eyes,

Alas, two hours later I had perfect pitch again. Now........WTF hapenned ??? Isn't CC supposed to evaporate in a heartbeat leaving no residue behind ?

 

from suppose to reality there could be a big distance, it is very risky to overdoo things specially when power is on, if anything like that happens again let it dry with power off and don't even try switching it on. You never know when you'll blow some electronics and that would be the end of it.

 

I'm guessing that the turntable you are referring to is the Pioneer PL-3000 listed in your profile (would have been good to mention it in your post).

I'm not an expert in this area, but I would be wondering if a capacitor is due to be replaced (they have limited lifespan), I've read reports of others fixing speed problems with this fix. A technician should be able test them and replace it easily.

Hope you manage to get speed stability soon!

 

Not when you flood it. It'll still evaporate but it will take a little time.

 

I am with qwerty on this one. Get a technician to have a look. Good luck

 

Think it's fixed for now:

The QD in "CRC QD Electric contact cleaner" is quick-dry. It carries the dirt to somewhere else and evaporates.

I had a concerning incident where I dosed a color screen portable mp3 player's connector with it, and the contact cleaner got in the LCD. You could see right through the screen even though it was still working, as the cleaner penetrated the layers and probably nullified the effects of the diffuser, etc. Thought I had ruined it, but a few hours later was back to new.

So, it can take a while to dry out, and in the meantime we expect liquid-suspended particles could include conductive elements such as potentiometer carbon - "Quick dry" only works if the vapor pressure has somewhere to go.

 

Yes that's the one. Sorry for not mentioning it but as you noticed, it's the one on my profile.

What I was hoping, and it happened