I just bought a Technics SL-B200 turntable which was supposed to only need a belt. When I got it, however, the spindle was pulled up in the center of the platter, just floating loose. I tried to push it back into place, but I'm afraid to use too much force, in case that's not the way to do it. Any ideas???

Welcome to AK MantaMike. Nice avatar too :thmbsp:
Someone should be along shortly to help you get your table going again.

I suspect there's a "C" clip or cotter pin that came off, allowing the spindle to pop up. I think you'll have to open it up to find out.

Welcome to AK, Mantamike! Yep, looks like time to peek under the hood... most spindles have some kind of retainer.

Manta, cute avatar! I'm a dog lover and can't resist a good looking pup.

The spindle shaft just shoves into the tube. You should pull the bottom off the machine and have a look, to make sure the nub at the end of the shaft contacts the thrust plate. In some designs, the thrust plate is inside the tube, and you need to inspect from topside.

They often use grease on these. Remove the grease and use high-viscosity oil.

That said, the fact that the shaft was loose suggests poor packing. Take a hard look at the tonearm to make sure that the gimbal assembly has not been whacked.

Best,

Fred Longworth

The spindle shaft just shoves into the tube.There you go - listen to the expert, not the hobbyist (if you have a choice!) :D

Fred does this every day, and knows his stuff!

The Technics do have a retaining clip or screw trapping the bearing shaft, since the platter is removed for shipping and for replacing belts. Not having it isn't a problem as long as you don't yank the shaft up at an angle or shove it back similarly. If the bearing was oiled (which maybe is why they removed the retaining clip and then forgot to replace it) the oil can make a airtight seal in the bearing well, and it may take several minutes for the shaft to settle back in.

My problem is not with having it stay in place, it's that I can't get it to go down into the hole! Perhaps a description would help: It is about 2 inches long, and about midway there is a plastic gear (which is not keeping me from trying to insert it). Below the plastic gear is a section which has splines in the shaft which obviously need to line up, kind of like hooking a driveshaft to a transmission, which don't seem to let me put it in place, no matter how much I turn it. I can see how there might be a retaining clip needed, but that assumes that I can get it to drop down into the hole in the first place. I'm at my wit's end (which isn't a long trip), anyone???

By the way, thanks for the feedback about our dog, Natia! My wife and I raised her to hopefully become a Service Dog with Canine Companions for Independence, but she flunked out of Advanced Training, so we kept her as our pet. She's a sweetheart!!!

You'll probably have to open it up and see what's happening on the other side.

There's another (slim) possibility, and that's that you don't have the original/correct spindle for that turntable. If the spindle was sticking up too far when you bought it, that might be it.

Manta, cute avatar! I'm a dog lover and can't resist a good looking pup.

My dog Rocky just for you and the others of course!

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9796/hpim0636zb3.jpg

NIce looking dog, but a picture of the problematic parts might be more helpful in figuring out what is wrong.

That's a beautiful dog, OLIRC!

I think I have the answer to your problem. I was just disassembling a SL BD20 fished out of the dumpster, and realised that your bearing shaft and that of this table sound exactly alike. Fred Longworth was right about there being no retaining clip, but that's because the actual plinth acts to trap the shaft. What you need to do is to take off the bottom of the turntable. (And to do this you have to make sure the arm is secured, and that you aren't resting the whole table on the arm -- the easiest way is to remove any loose parts, tie down the arm, and then holding the table and dustcover together , just flip so that the dustcover supports the whole plinth. Obviously do this on a cloth covered surface so you don't mar the dust cover.) I think that the bottom plate is secured by the feet and a screw or two more -- it ought to be obvious. Take that plate off, and you will see probably a metal plate but some models have a circuit board and metal plate thing in the middle, which is what the platter bearing is secured to. You need to remove that, so that you can just pop the shaft back on where it belongs, but usually there are some (surprisingly thin) wire levers that work the speed control and the auto/reject, and you need to not where and how they connect to the plate before you remove the scews and lift it up. On the table I took apart, there was a little shielding plate over the phono plugs which had to be removed to make one screw accessible.
Put everything back, and you ought to be fine.
You could, of course, just try to nudge the shaft back on around the part of the top that is supposed to trap it, and it might work (or even just shave the plastic part away), but the fact that the shaft was loose makes me suspect that the plate the bearing is attached too may not be screwed down tight, and until it is tightened, the table will never sound as good as it ought, so its probably best, if you are at all mechanically inclined, to do it the right way.
Or you could have someone do it for you, and since he offered advice, it seems to me that Fred Longworth might be an appropriate choice if you are anywhere close to him.
But have you contacted the seller -- you might be able to make it his or her problem. I am not sure the table is so valuable that it is worth both the purchase price and the repair price. So if you get it repaired, the seller ought to help out, it seems to me.