[[email protected]]

Hi,

I got to longing for some of my old LPs, especially those that were
never reissued on CDs. I dug out my old Pioneer PL-X100 linear
turntable. It's been sitting on a shelf in the garage for 10 years or
more. I've got a battery operated pre-amp that seems to work pretty
well.

It works, except... The mechanism that moves the pickup across the LP
seemed slow and balky, and eventually got stuck.

It looks like the lubricant got thick and sticky. I don't know what it
is. Silicone, maybe. It looks like some of it dripped off the
mechanical parts and oozed onto the the underside of the lid.

I reached inside as best I could and tried to clean up the mess with
WD-40. It seemed to dissolve the old sticky stuff, but the mechanism is
still slow and gets stuck at times. It appears that the drive motor and
belt or cable are okay. Seems like the sticky stuff is the problem.
There's probably more sticky stuff in places I can't reach.

I'd disassemble the turntable to clean it up more, but it looks like
the upper part doesn't come apart. It looks like the dust cover is
connected to rest of the the lid with plastic rivets. The dust cover
prevents access to the sticky mechanism. I'm thinking about drilling
out the rivets in an attempt to get inside.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,


Tim

[jakdedert]

wrote:
Hi,

I got to longing for some of my old LPs, especially those that were
never reissued on CDs. I dug out my old Pioneer PL-X100 linear
turntable. It's been sitting on a shelf in the garage for 10 years or
more. I've got a battery operated pre-amp that seems to work pretty
well.

It works, except... The mechanism that moves the pickup across the LP
seemed slow and balky, and eventually got stuck.

It looks like the lubricant got thick and sticky. I don't know what it
is. Silicone, maybe. It looks like some of it dripped off the
mechanical parts and oozed onto the the underside of the lid.

I reached inside as best I could and tried to clean up the mess with
WD-40. It seemed to dissolve the old sticky stuff, but the mechanism is
still slow and gets stuck at times. It appears that the drive motor and
belt or cable are okay. Seems like the sticky stuff is the problem.
There's probably more sticky stuff in places I can't reach.

I'd disassemble the turntable to clean it up more, but it looks like
the upper part doesn't come apart. It looks like the dust cover is
connected to rest of the the lid with plastic rivets. The dust cover
prevents access to the sticky mechanism. I'm thinking about drilling
out the rivets in an attempt to get inside.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,


Tim


That's one way, but I bet there's another, less destructive one.
Turntables are usually shipped without the covers attached. The store
or whomever put it together likely didn't use rivets to do so.

OTOH, now that you've washed all the lubrication out of the unit, it
needs to be replaced. First use another solvent to get rid of the WD40.
It will eventually get gummy and make things even worse.
Try--maybe--lighter fluid or carb cleaner...others will have
suggestions, I'm sure.

Get some good silicone grease and relube everything after cleaning up as
well as humanly possible. You really need to get all that old stuff out
of there.

Replace the belt. It can't be in very good shape considering the
condition of everything else and ten years of storage in a
semi-heated/cooled environment.

[[email protected]]

jakdedert wrote:
--snip--
That's one way, but I bet there's another, less destructive one.
Turntables are usually shipped without the covers attached. The store
or whomever put it together likely didn't use rivets to do so.

Good advice about the silicone. But how do I prevent the silicone from
getting all thick and sticky in the future? More silicone, every once
in a while?

Remember, this is a linear turntable. The mechanism that moves the
pickup across the disk is integrated into the dust cover, and the whole
thing has a very low profile. I suspect it shipped from the factory all
in one piece.

If a subscriber owns one of these, lemme know if you can see a way to
get at that mechanism, whatever it's called. I suspect it would be
possible to put it back together if I drilled out the plastic rivets,
but that's just an educated guess.

The belt is a good idea.

Cheers,


Tim

[jakdedert]

wrote:
jakdedert wrote:
--snip--
That's one way, but I bet there's another, less destructive one.
Turntables are usually shipped without the covers attached. The store
or whomever put it together likely didn't use rivets to do so.

Good advice about the silicone. But how do I prevent the silicone from
getting all thick and sticky in the future? More silicone, every once
in a while?

Major service to a mechanical device once every ten to fifteen years
shouldn't be a serious handicap. Good grease is also called for.

Remember, this is a linear turntable. The mechanism that moves the
pickup across the disk is integrated into the dust cover, and the whole
thing has a very low profile. I suspect it shipped from the factory all
in one piece.

I understand the concept, but don't have any direct experience with it.
I did work for a hifi store through much of the 70's. I unpacked a
lot of TT's, but linear ones were just appearing when I left that
business. We never carried them.

If a subscriber owns one of these, lemme know if you can see a way to
get at that mechanism, whatever it's called. I suspect it would be
possible to put it back together if I drilled out the plastic rivets,
but that's just an educated guess.

Be careful when drilling out rivets or screws in plastic. One must take
care to not heat them up too much with the bit, thereby melting the
plastic. Slow drill speed, and frequent cooling stops (dab area with
wet rag) are key.

The belt is a good idea.

Doubtless....

jak
Cheers,


Tim

j- [Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:34:59 -0500]:
Doubtless....

PLX-1000? I remember seeing a warehouse full
of those in 1979, all called backed because
Pioneer bought Harmon Kardon and HK already
had a linear-tracking tonearm turntable. I
wound up getting a PL-600 (not to be confused
with the much-later PL-600 which was something
much less). Or maybe that was the PLL-1000 --
more than just PL I know that. The PL-600
still works as well today as it did 27 years
ago -- with zero maintenance (direct drive,
with a 3lb platter).

http://40th.com/gfx/audio_hw/pioneer_pl600_1979.html

has a pic. I use it nowadays for copying LPs
to wave, using an X-Fi Elite Pro (it's got an
RIAA MM phono preamp in the external box), and
before that a Denon PMA-880R -- hard to find
MM/MC pre-amps anymore (the Denon has both).

--
40th Floor - Software @ http://40th.com/
iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
mp3,mp4,m4a,aac,ogg,wma,flac,wav, play+record
parametric eq, xfeed, reverb; all on a mobile

Make that, Pioneer bought Phase Linear,
and so recalled the PL-L1000. HK bought
Rabat (their linear-tracking turntable),
or something like that, which was that
funky gear/wheel/tonearm thing.

moi [Thu, 05 Oct 2006 04:31:51 GMT]:
PLX-1000? I remember seeing a warehouse full
of those in 1979, all called backed because
Pioneer bought Harmon Kardon and HK already
had a linear-tracking tonearm turntable. I
...

--
40th Floor - Software @ http://40th.com/
iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
mp3,mp4,m4a,aac,ogg,wma,flac,wav, play+record
parametric eq, xfeed, reverb; all on a mobile

[[email protected]]

wrote:
j- [Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:34:59 -0500]:
Doubtless....

PLX-1000? I remember seeing a warehouse full
of those in 1979, all called backed because
Pioneer bought Harmon Kardon and HK already
had a linear-tracking tonearm turntable. I
wound up getting a PL-600 (not to be confused
with the much-later PL-600 which was something
much less). Or maybe that was the PLL-1000 --
more than just PL I know that. The PL-600
still works as well today as it did 27 years
ago -- with zero maintenance (direct drive,
with a 3lb platter).

FWIW, the label on the front panel says, exactly, PL-X100

Does that have any particular significance?

I took one plastic rivet out, but putting the thing back together again
could be tricky. Little screws, washers, nuts, etc, might work, but
we're talking really tight quarters. It looks like the manufacturer
intended this to be a dispose-don't-repair device.

Maybe it's time to look around for a replacement turntable. Too bad. I
was quite satisfied with it, yesterday, when it was young.


Cheers,



Tim

g- )[4 Oct 2006 23:12:06 -0700]:
FWIW, the label on the front panel says, exactly, PL-X100

Sorry, I saw "1000" in there - one too many zeroes.

--
40th Floor - Software @ http://40th.com/
iPlay : the ultimate audio player for mobiles
mp3,mp4,m4a,aac,ogg,wma,flac,wav, play+record
parametric eq, xfeed, reverb; all on a mobile

[jakdedert]

wrote:
wrote:
j- [Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:34:59 -0500]:
Doubtless....

PLX-1000? I remember seeing a warehouse full
of those in 1979, all called backed because
Pioneer bought Harmon Kardon and HK already
had a linear-tracking tonearm turntable. I
wound up getting a PL-600 (not to be confused
with the much-later PL-600 which was something
much less). Or maybe that was the PLL-1000 --
more than just PL I know that. The PL-600
still works as well today as it did 27 years
ago -- with zero maintenance (direct drive,
with a 3lb platter).

FWIW, the label on the front panel says, exactly, PL-X100

Does that have any particular significance?

I took one plastic rivet out, but putting the thing back together again
could be tricky. Little screws, washers, nuts, etc, might work, but
we're talking really tight quarters. It looks like the manufacturer
intended this to be a dispose-don't-repair device.

Many things that were never meant to be repaired...can be. Only you can
decide if it's worth the trouble.

Instead of replacing the rivets with screws, why don't you (after you
have everything working again) replace them with...rivets? A cheap
pop-rivet tool can be had for a few bucks at most hardware stores, along
with a modest supply of rivets.

jak

Maybe it's time to look around for a replacement turntable. Too bad. I
was quite satisfied with it, yesterday, when it was young.

But that was yesterday and yesterday's gone.

Good luck.

jak

Cheers,



Tim

[[email protected]]

jakdedert wrote:

Instead of replacing the rivets with screws, why don't you (after you
have everything working again) replace them with...rivets? A cheap
pop-rivet tool can be had for a few bucks at most hardware stores, along
with a modest supply of rivets.

jak

Excellent suggestion, jak. I should'a thought of that.

As fate would have it, I managed to fix it another way. I found a
lubrication hole, suitable for the long skinny straw you can put in a
spray can nozzle. I tried WD-40 in there, but it did no good. Then I
tried a can of silicone lube, in the hole and every other place I could
reach. Still no benefit...

But after sitting overnight, it was working perfectly. Maybe the new
silicone lube dissolved the sticky old silicone, or maybe it was the
combination of silicone and WD-40. I'll hope for the best, and I think
I'd better burn my best beloved old LPs onto CDs while the thing
continues to work.

Cheers,


Tim

[jakdedert]

wrote:
jakdedert wrote:

Instead of replacing the rivets with screws, why don't you (after you
have everything working again) replace them with...rivets? A cheap
pop-rivet tool can be had for a few bucks at most hardware stores, along
with a modest supply of rivets.

jak

Excellent suggestion, jak. I should'a thought of that.

As fate would have it, I managed to fix it another way. I found a
lubrication hole, suitable for the long skinny straw you can put in a
spray can nozzle. I tried WD-40 in there, but it did no good. Then I
tried a can of silicone lube, in the hole and every other place I could
reach. Still no benefit...

But after sitting overnight, it was working perfectly. Maybe the new
silicone lube dissolved the sticky old silicone, or maybe it was the
combination of silicone and WD-40. I'll hope for the best, and I think
I'd better burn my best beloved old LPs onto CDs while the thing
continues to work.

It least it proves the concept; but you're right. I wouldn't expect it
to work as well as a good cleaning and relube. Get those Lp's burned
ASAP. OTOH, a little 'exercise' might work the silicone in there and
loosen things up...at least until you let it sit again.

There is also the possibility that 'shotgunning' it as you have may do
some damage, as well. If the lube gets onto anything which is not
supposed to slip, you're back at square one.

jak


Cheers,


Tim