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Yamaha YP-D8 cue dampening help

stencil

stencil

Active Member
Hey all - I have a YP-D8 that's running great except for one small thing - the cue dampening is, well, not damp.

Upon auto stop, the tonearm flies up as if launched by a slingshot, even hitting the dustcover at times.

I probably helped this along thinking I could drop some lube in the dampening assembly, but that just allowed it to snap up even faster. I'm scared to do anything else to the assembly in fear of completely killing it.

I did a search and found some old threads with expired photos, so I'm wondering if anyone here knows his/her way around a Yamaha dampening assembly and its cylinders?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Gonna be annoying and bump this once. There must be someone who has re-damped one of these assemblies before. I'm attaching a photo of the cue assembly so you can see the kind it is.

Any guidance or other brands that are similar would be helpful!

5195519290_ef6ecb59fa_z.jpg
 
What I can tell you is that you need silicone damping oil, probably 300,000 (300K) to 500,000 (500K) weight, which is very visous. The system is not hydraulic. The viscous oil creates friction between the lift shaft and the housing to slow the rate of ascent and descent. Best sources are RC hobby houses and sites where it's often listed as differential (diff) oil. Turntablebasics.com sells 300K and 600K (you can mix to alter viscosity), but you could end up waiting a long time for delivery.
 
Thank you!

I sort of knew that much, but you confirmed my suspicions.

Now, does anyone know how this think comes apart? I can get the lift column out, but it's screwed to the larger cylinder, and I have no idea how that comes out / what it slides into. I imagine there might be reservoir somewhere in the body?
 
stencil said:
Thank you!

I sort of knew that much, but you confirmed my suspicions.

Now, does anyone know how this think comes apart? I can get the lift column out, but it's screwed to the larger cylinder, and I have no idea how that comes out / what it slides into. I imagine there might be reservoir somewhere in the body?
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There's seldom a reservoir. Essentially the lift shaft is just coated with the goop. If you can't figure out how to disassemble it, you could just try forcing some stuff down the shaft. Get enough in there, work it up and down, and it should work.
 
dnpainting said:
Vinyl Engine has the service and Owners manuals, free for download, sign up for (Free) Here is the link to your table
http://www.vinylengine.com/library/yamaha/yp-d8.shtml
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Yup, I have it, but it strangely leaves out details about the cueing assembly.

I'll be seeking out some dampening oil, probably on my trip to LA later this week where I'll have a car to run around to some hobby shops.

If you guys saw the tonearm fly up and bounce upon auto stop you'd cringe.
 
Let me know if you figure it out. I couldn't on my YP-D8 either, and I also have the manual. And I already have a syringe full of dampening fluid from TT basics, for over 2 years! You can't force any down the shaft. While nowhere near as bad as yours, I'd still like to slow mine down some, too.
 
perryinva said:
Let me know if you figure it out. I couldn't on my YP-D8 either, and I also have the manual. And I already have a syringe full of dampening fluid from TT basics, for over 2 years! You can't force any down the shaft. While nowhere near as bad as yours, I'd still like to slow mine down some, too.
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Interesting - so it won't get down that little opening where the screw is that unscrews the cue lifter? That's where I assume it needs to go. When you try in there, what happens? It just blobs out?

I was able to get that out easily, but that's just so I can adjust the height of the cue; it's static to a wider cylinder.

As for now I'm playing records with the dustcover open. It hit it so hard once that I lost a channel (loose headshell lead that was easy to fix, but scary nonetheless in terms of long-term life).
 
You mention that the tonearm shoots up at the end of play, but does it lower slowly at the beginning? If so, then I doubt the damping fluid is the problem. Please don't be offended, but is the arm balance set correctly? If the tracking force is too light then that could be the problem. I have never worked on this particular TT, but generally you can remove the cueing assembly and disassemble to coat the shaft with the proper silicone fluid. You may have to remove the bottom cover to see the mechanism. Usually the shaft will have a recess that acts kind of like a reservoir, so simply coating the exposed part of the shaft may not work. I have worked on many vintage TTs and on most removing the cueing assembly is not that difficult. Have you removed the bottom cover to take a look? If you remove the bottom cover and provide more pictures, maybe we can figure out what to do next. This shouldn't be that tough to fix.


Jon
 
jnoyes said:
You mention that the tonearm shoots up at the end of play, but does it lower slowly at the beginning? If so, then I doubt the damping fluid is the problem. Please don't be offended, but is the arm balance set correctly? If the tracking force is too light then that could be the problem. I have never worked on this particular TT, but generally you can remove the cueing assembly and disassemble to coat the shaft with the proper silicone fluid. You may have to remove the bottom cover to see the mechanism. Usually the shaft will have a recess that acts kind of like a reservoir, so simply coating the exposed part of the shaft may not work. I have worked on many vintage TTs and on most removing the cueing assembly is not that difficult. Have you removed the bottom cover to take a look? If you remove the bottom cover and provide more pictures, maybe we can figure out what to do next. This shouldn't be that tough to fix.


Jon
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Thanks, Jon - not offended at all. Yes, I set the balance properly, tracking around 1.5 for the L747s cartridge on here. In short, it falls on its own. The downcue I can do manually using the lever, so I can control how slow it goes. It would drop like a rock if I let it go on its own, though.

I was suspecting (and not looking forward to) that I'd have to open the bottom cover, but if that's what I need to do, that's what I'll do. I've yet to get the silicone fluid (hopefully this week), but your description sounds consistent with other reports I've read for other TTs.
 
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Usually there is a spring, washer, nut on the bottom of the cueing assembly, or there could be a circlip holding it together. If you remove the nut (or circlip) you may be able to lift the shaft out from the top. Sometimes there is a larger nut holding the entire assembly in place. Take pictures before removing anything to help in reassembly. I looked at the service manual and there isn't enough detail to see what you are dealing with. I can't remember any TT I've worked on that didn't require removing the bottom cover to access the cueing assembly. I often use 3-4 rolls of toilet paper to support the TT when turned over. They are soft and provide good support.

If you can't get damping fluid right away, PM me. When you buy it there's enough for dozens of TTs. It usually only requires a drop or so.

Jon
 
jnoyes said:
Usually there is a spring, washer, nut on the bottom of the cueing assembly, or there could be a circlip holding it together. If you remove the nut (or circlip) you may be able to lift the shaft out from the top. Sometimes there is a larger nut holding the entire assembly in place. Take pictures before removing anything to help in reassembly. I looked at the service manual and there isn't enough detail to see what you are dealing with. I can't remember any TT I've worked on that didn't require removing the bottom cover to access the cueing assembly. I often use 3-4 rolls of toilet paper to support the TT when turned over. They are soft and provide good support.

If you can't get damping fluid right away, PM me. When you buy it there's enough for dozens of TTs. It usually only requires a drop or so.

Jon
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Thanks! Quite kind of you. I head out of town this week for TDay and will be back next week. While out on the west coast, if I have time, I'll hit up a hobby store and see if they have silicone oil. If not, you'll be hearing from me, and I promise to take pictures (both for the reason you mention above as well as for perryinva and other souls who need to do this).
 
Hey all. So I'm back in town with some 5,000cst silicon oil that I picked up from a hobby shop in LA.

I took off the bottom cover of the YP-D8 (sorry I didn't take pics), and the dampening assembly appears to go through a couple pulleys and is then dampened using some sort of hinge. The old oil was pretty crusty, so I globbed on some silicone oil there.

Then I dripped some down into the top of the lift shaft. It's certainly better, but still pops up a bit. However, I've noticed something interesting: With enough oil in there to dampen it and a decent weight on the anti-skate, it almost acts like an auto return.

Will keep you all informed. I actually ordered some 500,000cst from turntable basics, which I expect to get sometime in 2012.

Anyway, it's certainly a bit better now. I recommend those of you with these tables to get under the hood and help out those old cables and pulleys on your Yammies.

Anyone know if there's a tonearm well on this thing? I wouldn't mind using some of the 3000 cst I picked up on that.
 
There is no dampening well on the YP-D8. I had to LOL at your auto return, as I know exactly what you mean. Since you already looked, you now know that any oil that was applied to the opening for the height adjust screw, would just be a puddle inside your TT! That is not a well. I've though of adding some rubber cement or something to that hinge looking device to slow it down, but it would just be a hit or miss thing, and how long would it last? One thing I should have mentioned that helps a lot is to use the allen wrench to adjust the lift height directly under the TA. The main issue with thtis is you have to adjust his whenever you adjust the VTA. If you lower the TA, you will get much more lift, or actually not enough drop with the lift down. You only want the stylus to lift 1/4", some people go even less. (I don't because of warps). If it lifts too much it will skyrocket the TA much more.
 
perryinva said:
There is no dampening well on the YP-D8. I had to LOL at your auto return, as I know exactly what you mean. Since you already looked, you now know that any oil that was applied to the opening for the height adjust screw, would just be a puddle inside your TT! That is not a well. I've though of adding some rubber cement or something to that hinge looking device to slow it down, but it would just be a hit or miss thing, and how long would it last? One thing I should have mentioned that helps a lot is to use the allen wrench to adjust the lift height directly under the TA. The main issue with thtis is you have to adjust his whenever you adjust the VTA. If you lower the TA, you will get much more lift, or actually not enough drop with the lift down. You only want the stylus to lift 1/4", some people go even less. (I don't because of warps). If it lifts too much it will skyrocket the TA much more.
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Hehe... yeah, the auto-return effect pretty funny, if not cool. Wonder if they intended that? I'll shoot a video later for everyone's entertainment. I globbed plenty on the hinge-like thing and it's working relatively well. I have to think there's a way to tighten it but I get antsy when I have the bottom open on this thing. It's super heavy. As for the lift height, yes, I've been down that path. I have it just BARELY under the TA to keep it from knocking into it on return, and that's working pretty well.

I've resigned to playing records with the dustcover open.
 
how goes the battle with your Yamaha? I have this same table I bought from a pawn shop in 1980 still works pretty good. I got the factory service manual for it off ebay, its not real extensive. i looked it shows how to remove the tonearm but thats not the info you need. also, some of it is in Japanese :]

rick
 
Much better off after getting some 300,000 cst damping fluid from turntablebasics.

My next battle is trying to restore a Yamaha CR-1000 that I found on the street.
 
i just googled the image up on your resto project thats a beautiful stereo (somebody threw that away?). I have a technics sa-800 that I really like but Ive been thinking of picking up a vintage yamaha receiver.
 
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