I watched this again and I am taking notes of what you are discovering yourself. Thanks again and a warm handshake from my humble country the Philippines 🇵🇭.
I remember when I was 12 (1982) and around a lot of apartment complexes dumpsters I would find good TVs, stereos, and an ocasional clock radio that worked perfectly good.
Those Shure M75 series cartridges are great. They later changed the design of the housing when they created the M75 Type 2; the original M75 (the one you have) is quite versatile because you can fit literally dozens and dozens of different Shure styli on them.
maineboy1979, I agree. I have a m75-6s and i need a replacement needle and on ebay the styli are extremely versatile, I think fitting 5 other cartridges! Mine is also on a Dynatron record player with a Lenco Goldring 101 turntable.
Also kind of reminds me a little bit of Radiotvphononut where he also sometimes finds some of the most beat up turntables from the most unusual places and then fully restores them like new again. I always enjoy these electronics restoration videos.
This looks absolutely identical to a Garrard turntable I had as a kid. The level for speed/size and manual/auto are identical. Even the Zenith nameplate on top is the same location as the Garrard one was.
As you mentioned in your video, This turntable is actually made by Garrard in the 1970’s. I have a couple of them. I had sent the idler wheel out to be rebuilt and bought a new Grado Green cartridge
Nice! I found a realistic lab 430 on the curb not long ago. It's from 1985, and is a direct drive automatic turntable. It was likely thrown away because a single screw on the inside came loose, preventing it from working entirely. I bought a stylus for the R47XT cartridge, a preamp, fixed the one small issue, and cleaned it. It has replaced my modern Pro-jet primary turntable, and months later, I have no plans on going back.
Wow. You did a good job. Really amazing to see stuff like this to be thrown out. Glad you found and restored it the best way you could. I wish i could find stuff like this.
No doubt about it. I had these models in times past. It may have read ZENITH for their STEREO units, but that was a GERRARD. Many were sold in the United States under many names such as Lloyds GERRARD. What annoyed me with them when the record was finished the tone arm instead of going back to its rest stand it kept on going back to the 💽 disc. The stack record overarm was not adjusted mechanically correct, which made this happen when i had them. Only one model GERRARD I had that was successful in those days that didn't have that defect. Otherwise not a bad model it had a metal platter very fancy. Very nice clean up & Good video.. 🎥💽✅👍
P.S. That doesn't sound bad at all. This rubber wheel was early versions of direct drive. Later turntables like TECHNICS added Pitch control with lights..
I picked up a Fisher 230-XA at a goodwill, it is visually and very mechanically similar. the drive system is identical to this one. I also have the same issue you had with it making a bit of noise. Mine has a Pickering V15/AT-2 cartridge, which is apparently the same exact thing as a Stanton 500. I got a new Kyoma stylus for it, for my first turntable and it being under 5$ it sounds amazing!
Automotive brake fluid used to be used as a shade tree trick to swell and soften rubber seals, in an engine (wouldn't recommend that). It definitely softens rubber, but it takes some time to work. It will also strip paint. Though not after 30 minutes. It takes a while to work, but it does.
Great video, very informative. Shortening and re-forming the spring that holds the idler tire against the spindle can help with the slowing-down during automatic operation problem. Keep up the good work!
Nice work. usually when I find the problem of the idle wheel I use a small dremel adapted to a lathe, I turn the wheel and with a small blade or sandpaper on its diameter, I remove some material until it has a "
Sounds Awesome... I remember Zenith from when I was a teenager ... they were always a solid brand, and that had been in the "proof" for at least over twenty years (?), but nobody ever wanted to admit it, for some strange reason. Maybe the word "Zenith" didn't sound "cool" or "good enough?". Maybe people still weren't ready yet, for that horizon? (heh-heh), They were always of solid and reputable quality products, and which were fairly and reasonably priced, from what I can remember. Great Job! Kudos to you Sir!!
Nice job there! It's great to see an old turntable that was considered as just 'ordinary' and nothing special, still working well after a good cleaning, some 30 or 40 years later! :-) I have a lovely old BSR P128R/MP-60 from around 1972 that looks and performs flawlessly after I've spent the last couple of years tinkering here and there with it, and just doing little extra bits to it! It too is running a vintage and period Shure M75-6 cartridge with conical stylus, and it sounds incredible (even compared with modern turntables (Rega RP1, AT-120USB, Pro-ject Primary), and another vintage favourite of mine; a Technics SL-QX200 quartz direct drive. I'll always have a place in my life for a good vintage Garrard or BSR turntable... hey, they were in the music centres of my childhood back then, and even when fitted with ceramic cartridges, they sounded good (because the manufacturers knew how to impedance-match back then!!), and so it's wonderful for me to still see and use some of these classic old turntables from my youth (which 'audiophile' people derided back then!), and yet you find that those decks are still going strong today, if they've been looked after, and can actually sound better than many back then (and still today-based on old 'urban' legends) would ever believe! :-)
great work vwesstlife.also l love me some maria muldar.and yep,your a very great qualified service personel...one mans trash,another mans treasure. great luck in your furture too.
Old record players are the best! Good strong powerful motors that basically never die. My 60s RCA Victor Garrard changer model VS-14 has such a good motor in it. I’ve stacked like 6 78s and that didn’t faze it. Although i don’t wanna test how much it can handle cuz I don’t want to wreck the motor. Mines the suitecase style and the speakers in those changers sound f*cking fantastic. Speakers today don’t have that clear sound like the old speakers do. Thanks for this vid btw good save with that record player. Looks really nice!
There is no way to repair a hardened idler wheel, other than what you did, and that will be temporary. I have even tried buying the extremely expensive rubber renew stuff, (which smells mostly like xylene, a common aggressive solvent)...it works for a short time, but fails in the end. The only answer is to buy new rubber... a new rebuilt idler wheel with new soft rubber. Btw, Duel turntables from the very early 1970's often still work because of whatever rubber they used on their idler wheels is still somewhat supple, even after decades.
I used citric acid on some old hardened up rubber sleeves and it got them back to a smooth flexible condition. I never tried it on an idler wheel though...
There is no way to restore rubber. Rubber is organic and biodegrades, it will harden then crumble over time. You cannot 'restore' it, just soften it a bit temporarily, but that will actually just accelerate the degradation. A real solution would be to replace the idler wheel with something synthetic or just replace it when the rubber goes hard.
You are right but even if this is just temporarily restoring their flexibility a bit still makes sense as sleeves for example tend to break and this gives you at least 2 years before they break down so far that they become unusable :) At least this is the case with the ones I treated with citric acid. I'm using an ultrasonic cleaner on which I have done this 2 years ago and the sleeves are still fine :)
SlackJones1 Smith You can go to thevoiceofmusic.com and do an exchange for a refurbished idler wheel. They’re about $30 but worth it because I think he uses synthetic materials to replace the rubber. I have a Realistic, BSR based 4 speed record changer that is going to get fixed. I bought it to play 78s.
You just inspired me to finally work on my Zenith Micro-Touch changer. I'm still waiting on a new stylus, but at least I seem to have the changer mechanism working now!
Well done.I.m very slowly doing up an AWA-Thorn rim drive.Trawled through 100s of pictures to find it. Sent the idler wheel off to Russell Industries in NY for rebuilding.Lovely people.Thanks.
Some hardware shops sell loose O-rings and you can choose the best diameter for your needs...possibly even to rescue something like this idler wheel. Brilliant repair tho. Nice job....
Two things, isopropyl alcohol is the best solution to clean the old rubber residue off the motor's pulley, just don't let it get into the motor from the shaft. And also clean the inside rim of the platter where the idler contacts but don't remove the finish that supplies drive adhesion. Tried servicing a BSR once and could not correct the squeaking, but realized the tack finish was worn off completely. Realized later that if I had re-coated that rim with the correct tack it would have solved the issue. Good Luck.
You did a great job. I've done two videos showing people how to restore their dust covers. Lots of people viewed. Sadly that tells me lots have bad covers.😬
You have to take the phono motor apart degrease it and clean all old grease off the shafts and bearings and lube them with zoom spout oil or Motorkote hyper lubricant which will never gum up. Also clean the inner rim of the platter to help get more torque from the idler wheel
Also Anti skating is not related to the weight. Or well, it is, but not directly. Setting it to two grams is as good as anything else. The proper way to do anti skating is using a test record and an oscilloscope, but a neat little trick to get it 'quite allright' is to drop the stylus on the beginning of the record a few times and see what it does. If it skids inside every now and then, anti skating is too low. If it seems to be 'searching' for the first groove to fall in to, it's too high. Definitely not a scientific method but it gets you somewhat close to the desired anti skating.
That's a pretty good record changer. After Zenith gave up its in-house changer for their Micro-Touch 2G tonearm in 1969, Zenith went on to make changers for BSR and Garrard instead of the Zenith name.
VWestlife, nice trash find. Clever idea with the rubber band around the idler wheel. Once rubber dries out, the chemical remedies only last for a short time. It's good that there is a place that you can get a replacement idler wheel.
What I've found that works wonderfully - in most cases - is a broccoli rubber band. Since it's usually much smaller in diameter than the idler, it will wrap around the top and bottom of the idler. In some instances there won't be enough clearance on the bottom part of the idler on the motor shaft, and the broccoli rubber band will rub on that higher speed which sits below the idler [not an issue on single-speed machines]. Trimming it down takes care of that. YMMV.
Nice find and fix. I have an old Kmart record player which still works, Just got a new needle for it. I need to find a good preamp. I have the tiny radioshack amp, actually two, but they are mono. I'm going to try those one on each channel as a temporary method. Lots of good tunes on that greatest hits record, save that one.
Try a PYLE PP444 preamp. Does a decent job and not too pricey. I had to install one on a friend's turntable with a AT cartridge because his receiver, a newer Pioneer, had no phono inputs and we plugged it into the aux jack. Worked great.
If memory serves me correctly, all of those early wheel driven turntables had that problem of slowing down as the automatic mechanism engaged. Sometimes it could be helped by taking alcohol and wiping the inside edge of the platter itself to clear up minor film buildup but most of the time it was just the power of the motor.
darn you didn’t get the lakewood box fan. i’m a fan collector, i know the bigger version is probably a p223 (plastic blade) or p23 (metal blade). not sure the model of the smaller version. but this is a pretty cool table. i need to get a better turntable.
You select size and speed at once, so the record player is designed before the introduction of 12" records with 45 rpm, so it supports 33 rpm EPs with 7"
I have an idler wheel table that I got for $1. I had it going good for a while. I have to figure some things out with the tone arm wires. They are so fine that they just break when I try to re solder them when I recently went at it trying to get it going again. It had a bit of a problem wanting to spin at correct speed. I had a can of belt dressing and sprayed a little bit on the edges of the idler wheel and that fixed it immediately.
