Tonights Update - Pt XV - Light's, camera, action!
Big leap forward tonight in getting the deck restored. I decided to bite the bullet and get the re-wiring and the on/off switch refurbed and rebuilt. Trying to find any information about this deck has been hard and the rewiring aspect of things did indeed cause a few problems. I've spent many hours downloading pictures of the 99 from all over the net but, this is good and bad. Good in that you can see bits which are missing, bad because Lenco's can be wired differently depending on where you reside. I took copious amounts of photographs before I decided to desolder the on/off switch. I noticed that I was missing several areas of wiring so this had to be replaced. I had to repair the strobe light and I had to buy some yellow heat shrink to match up with the old wiring. The light for the on/off switch works perfectly and is now fitted back on to the top plate. I've included a few more pics.
This picture meant a lot to me and that I think it signified a turning point in the decks renovation. Technically the deck is as refurbished as it can be with repects to how it arrived, everything has been restored and is now working. There is still a lot to do but the deck can now play music if it was mounted in a plinth alongside a suitable tonearm. The deck couldn't even spin or light up when it first arrived.
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The picture shows one of the nasty surprises awaiting me when rebuilding the on/off switch and wiring it all back together. I had to sacrifice the original yellow covering (which I still have) and replace with yellow heatsink which still needs to "shrunk"! The light bulb got fixed with a little solder and was later covered over with heat shrink.
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The is the rebuilt on/off switch. The switch is a simple rocker switch but I dismantled it and did a number of small repairs. Here you can see the various bulbs to be soldered on before it has to be mounted onto the top plate. I've already done some work. This took ages to finish as I had to continually refer to my reference photos and various pics from the net.
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OK, here she is all wired up. It's not looking very neat and a little Heath-Robinson but that can soon be tidied up. My deck was missing several wires from the on/off switch which meant that it couldn't be wired up properly or tested. The brown wires are a replacement whilst the originals would have been silver. I may replaced these back to silver if I can find a wire which resembles the old stuff. I've kept all the original wiring. I've seen some resto's with replacement wiring but to me that spoils the originality of the deck. I've tried to remain true with this resto.
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Final picture. The old girl is all lit up and spins!
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I'd say the deck is ~70% complete. The buttons and decals should be made in the next few weeks which brings me even closer to the finish line. The next big thing will be the external top plate which attaches to the main body of the 99 via three screws on the underside of the deck. I already have a cunning plan with respects to how I'm going to make this. I will reveal more when the time comes. The deck still has it's issues and the linkages are not silky perfect like on my Lenco 75 but that's just teething problems and easily remedied. The idler wheel needs a little adjustment and a quick listen to the motor reveals it to be reasonably quiet. I'm now looking forward to getting this deck finished so I can start work on my Garrard 301 (I have a new bearing coming), and my Lenco 75 Reference.
As always, stay tuned....
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Originally Posted by walpurgis
New buttons/selectors on way from Scotland.
