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JVC QL-A2 Turntable Tonearm positioning adjustments

BruceRPA

BruceRPA

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have a JVC QL-A2 turntable and I need to adjust the tonearm height when the arm lifts and returns at the end of of the record. The needle barely clears the surface of the record and sometimes touches the surface as it returns. Essentially, it does not lift quite high enough. The other issue is that after the tonearm reaches the rest, just as the power shuts off, the tonearm jumps toward the center and the stylus and cartridge come to rest at the outer edge of the platter. I don't have the owners manual or a service manual and I do not see any holes near the base of the tonearm that would be where I would expect to find the adjustments. There are a couple of suspicious holes under the platter but there are no markings. Before I just start turning screws, if anyone has a manual, I sure would appreciate a copy or the page with the directions for adjusting the tonearm. Tracking weight adjustments and anti-skate are not an issue.

Thanks in advance!
 
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I had a BPC JVC QL-F300. For the clearence issue, The cueing arm that the toneamr rests on was spring loaded and if you undid it abit, it will raise up as there wasnt any tonearm height adjustment.

The landing issue, On the same turntable, just to the left of the pivot point of the tonearm, there was a hole that had a adjustment that you used a flat-bladed screwdriver to adjust.
 
There is a spring-loaded cue height adjustment built into the arm lift bar. Usually you need to press the arm lift bar down slightly with your finger to "clear" the adjustment screw.

The thing with jumping out of the arm rest is more problematical. Here's my guess. Often the main lever that returns the tonearm to the rest has a damping pad built into it. These deteriorate and get sticky. Thus, when the main lever returns the arm to the rest and then pulls clear -- as it should -- the stickiness drags the arm back toward the record. The cure is to clean the old pad residue off and glue a new pad on. Felt or rubber both work, something soft. You do need to take the machine apart to do this.

Fred Longworth
 
Thank you both! I appreciate the advice. I will give 'er a look under the hood, this weekend I hope, and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!:thmbsp:
 
JVC QL-A2 foam rot repair

I don't know if you still have this turntable, but I had recently acquired one and found your post looking from some solutions to mine. It had similar problems with the tonearm lifting prematurely (about 3/4 through the record), returning to rest, but then moving off the tonearm rest. It also was not powering off.

Other than that, it was fine! ; - )

I took mine apart underneath and saw that the foam pad was so sticky with foam rot, that after it finished gently pushing the tonearm back to it's rest, it clung to it when the mechanism returned to IT'S rest. Just enough to yank the arm off the rest. I cleaned the white pin, which is connected to the tonearm, with rubbing alcohol and replaced the foam pad. It works great. Also adjusted the screw to make the power switch work correctly. Basically had to turn it all the way to get the plastic arms to push enough on the read power switch. Not sure if the reason was the springs got looser over time, but in any event it worked.
 

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Yup, I'm so looking forward to trying this myself once I have some free time on my hands. Do I just have to remove the underside of the turntable in order to reach those parts? Is there a need to remove the arm, or can I just lock it into its rest?
 
Thank you very much for this information - I just fixed my QL-A2, and I didn't have to replace the foam. Cleaning the pin was enough for now.

You don't have to remove the tonearm, just the bottom cover, but first take off the cartridge and the platter.
 
A lot of JVC tables have the gooey pad syndrome. I've seen it on a few models and it's at least an easy fix. I've found adhesive backed cork to be a good solution or rubber with double sided tape.
 
It looks like the AK search function is alive and well. Nicely done folks! :thmbsp:

What I don't quite understand though is, how did you all know that my JVC TT needs some attention again after all this time? Must be a Google thing, or the NSA. Hey, wait a minute! :para:
 
This quick and easy fix works very well with my turntable. I removed the old foam (instead of placing new foam on top of the old, as in the pictures), since I had replacement stuff just like the factory foam. Thanks to Mutato for helping me tremendously!
 
Thanks to this thread I was able to fix the same issue!

My tone arm was being dragged back towards the platter and not staying in the rest position after automatic return. It was the "foam rot" issue.

I cleaned off the sticky part, and just ended up putting tape around the foam. It's working for now, and it's a temporary turntable anyways. If the tape doesn't hold I know it's an easy fix.

Thanks to all on this forum!
 
Grateful for the info in this thread - used it to fix up my JVC QL-A5. Foam weatherstripping worked well for me.

However - now when the needle gets into the runout grooves and the return mechanism starts to engage, the tone arm starts to swing back to rest before the needle has a chance to cleanly clear the runout grooves, dragging over one or two grooves. Yikes. One could say it's not in the music so it's no big deal ... but that's not my style. Any ideas? Could it be foam thickness or the tone arm ramp thing or something else I need to adjust out or ???

Opinions and funny stuff welcome - as well as the quality help & troubleshooting this place is known for. Thanks!
 
I'd cycle it by hand and determine if it's a timing issue or a tonearms height issue. If you grab the SM there:a probably a pretty easy procedure for adjusting the timing.
 
scrawltrawlr said:
Grateful for the info in this thread - used it to fix up my JVC QL-A5. Foam weatherstripping worked well for me.

However - now when the needle gets into the runout grooves and the return mechanism starts to engage, the tone arm starts to swing back to rest before the needle has a chance to cleanly clear the runout grooves, dragging over one or two grooves. Yikes. One could say it's not in the music so it's no big deal ... but that's not my style. Any ideas? Could it be foam thickness or the tone arm ramp thing or something else I need to adjust out or ???

Opinions and funny stuff welcome - as well as the quality help & troubleshooting this place is known for. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Welcome to the AK turn table forum.

The " tone arm ramp thing " should be adjustable for height - see the service manual. :music:
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/jvc/ql-a2.shtml
 
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