Technics 1200 Tonearm Height and Cue Lever

[ktsimikos]

Hello Everyone,

I've posted here before for my tonearm height adjustment being stuck
and my cue lever not working at all.

After doing some reading and watching a couple of videos I decided to give it
a go and am currently waiting for the wd 40 to potentially work and help me separate
the height adjustment ring from the baseplate which is stuck pretty hard.

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_185816_zpswh83gslr.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_185816_zpswh83gslr.jpg.html)

Now on to the cue lever question. I wasn't prepared for this I thought I would just leave it as is, as I can now cue
manually but I ll ask the question anyway. The lever seems to work because when i apply some pressure
with my finger when the lever is down the tonearm lowers and when i pull the lever up the tonearm is lifted but I am
not sure if it is lifted high enough. Also when I lower the lever when it is on the "high" position it does not drop at all.
I am attaching some pictures so you can see. I read that some high viscosity oil might fix this issue but I do not even know
where to apply it. If anyone can point out if it is an easy thing to do I will try it, otherwise I ll leave it as it is. Thanks for your time!

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_190152_zpsmgzzojzp.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_190152_zpsmgzzojzp.jpg.html)

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_190119_zpsgwvjewct.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_190119_zpsgwvjewct.jpg.html)

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_190134_zpsoyo322ny.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_190134_zpsoyo322ny.jpg.html)

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_190102_zpswrk2vbeu.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_190102_zpswrk2vbeu.jpg.html)

http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u362/ktsimikos/IMG_20160508_190241_zpsdnxdgxyv.jpg (http://s1064.photobucket.com/user/ktsimikos/media/IMG_20160508_190241_zpsdnxdgxyv.jpg.html)

[CageyH]

That looks normal to me.
There is a screw you can adjust to gain some more arm lift. If you look down on the top of the arm lift, you will see it.
It's in the round black support for the arm lift.

[ktsimikos]

Thanks Kevin I ll see if that works.

The thing is that before opening it up, I thought the lever didn't even work because I could play the record regardless
of the lever position. Is there any danger of adjusting it to lift too much that the tonearm will not lower enough to play the
record when I lower the lever?

[CageyH]

I don't think so, but I have never tried.
With the VTA in working operation you may well need to adjust it slightly.

[ktsimikos]

Alright, I tried it and I can see that it lifts higher then before so hopefully that could work!
I can hear a cracking sound when it lifts back to the top position, do you think it could
benefit from any oil in there?

[CageyH]

I think that the lift mechanism is a sealed unit, but a drop of light oil may help.

[CageyH]

And if adjusting the arm lift, you need to depress the lift bar slightly while turning the screw.

[ktsimikos]

Right, so I decided to buy some high viscosity rc oil (500K) and apply it in the
cueing mechanism and it all worked fine I think. My new problem is that while I was
assembling the tonearm back together, the plastic part of the height adjustment ring
(the one with the numbers) came loose from it's metal base. I think it was originally
glued with its base and the glue dried out so it came apart. Does anyone know how I
can find out the correct position to glue it back together? I suppose that it is important
to glue it to its original position otherwise the heigh adjustment won't be calibrated.

[CageyH]

My suggestion would be to reassemble the arm, as there is a physical stop and mark the position to enable you to glue the parts in place.

[ktsimikos]

Thanks a lot Kevin,

That's what I was thinking of doing. I'll assemble the height adjustment ring to the tonearm and
according to what I read when it is fixed, you should move it back around 1 inch and that should be
the 0 position on the pointer. I'll mark that and glue it back. I didn't expect this to happen though :doh:

[CageyH]

I'll be interested to know if the oil works.

[ktsimikos]

Hi Kevin,

The good news is that I re assembled the turntable, the tonearm height adjustment works fine and no damage has been done to anything!
Unfortunately the cue lever still doesn't seem to work.

I used this as my guide and disassembled it internally, applied the silicone oil generously and hoped it would work.

http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=73987

My problem seems to be that the tonearm, when the lever is down does not lower at all. That's with the vta adjustment and the cartridge on it. When I apply pressure on
it with my finger it lowers and when i pull the lever up it rises but it does not go down on its own.

I read that I can try and damp it from the top by removing the screw on top and putting oil in there and maybe I ll try that too.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks again!

[CageyH]

My thoughts are that the silicone oil is too thick, or there is too much of it in there.

[ktsimikos]

I don't think so because it didn't work on the first place and when I opened it
there was hardly any oil in there. Anyway I'll try and unscrew it from the top as
well and let you know if I see anything interesting!

[CageyH]

Have you tried oiling the spring/damper assembly?

[ktsimikos]

Hey Kevin, I'll try that tonight and post some pics. I'll unscrew it from the top and see if I need to clean up anything in there and add some oi. Hopefully it will work!
That's the last thing that I can think of since everything else seems to work fine

[CageyH]

I think you need to access it from the bottom.