Micromatic teardown & rebuild

[Gildo]

Question regarding issue after tutuorial

This is a first time post, as I just bought my wife a Magnavox Astro Sonic console unit, which is in outstanding condition. The turn table was not working at purchase, but you could get sound gently brushing the needle so it was something with the motor or another issue. After reading this post I decided to clean the thing up and did exactly as on here. It did grab the wheel and turned for a second and then just stopped. The motor is running and I have come to the following conclusions if someone can offer their more expert opinion than what I know.

The larger wheel of the two appears to be binding up and is not running flat if that makes sense. After taking everything apart and lubing and what not, this unit inside was super clean, a little dirty, not a ton of old grease, but certainly needed some TLC. I also noted the motor mounts seem to have more play than what I have read and am wondering if that issue along with old rollers could be my problem? The small roller is rolling and appears in good shape, I am just not sure why the large one is hanging up. It was doing this prior to taking it apart so I am not sure if I need a new one or what? Any thoughts would be awesome so my wife will be happy with her record player.

The turntable model is Micromatic, Model number W620-11-00.

Thank you very much,

don

 

[larryderouin]

The big wheel (at the bottom as you face it from the front) is the cycling acctuator. It sound;s like it's hung up part way thru the cycle. Carefully turn it CLOCKWISE until the tonearm sets back in the holder.

Then go thru it all AGAIN, and get rid of the "marine grade" grease. Too Heavy for the mechanism. you wouldn't put Wheel bearing grease in your engine crankcase.

The Micromatic will/should self center when it's run thru a cycle, either manually or by the motor.

Replace the motor mounts, and the idler wheel. www.thevoiceofmusic.com has them.

ONLY USE WHITE LITHIUM GREASE and light machine oil on it. NOTHING ELSE.

 

[Gildo]

Thank you

Appreciate the response. I did some investigating while turning real slow and that one piece that lays across the top right side of TT seemed to be the culprit maybe. The little roller ball on the top side of the large gear would make it around and then jam into that piece that hangs down from the top. That would then bind up the idle wheel. I made a slight adjustment to that top piece and roller ball barely cruises by it now and everything seems kinda right? Almost seems like that roller ball is supposed to get caught by that piece though.

I will certainly re-tear down and use the right grease too. That was not my best decision.

Don

 

[drbiggles]

Hey Larry,

Thank you again for stopping by my new post over there. Originally I had just stared at the turntable and figured that was pretty much how it was going to be. I would just gently lay the arm down and use it until it stopped some day. But after reading through your tutorial and the success stories, I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot. It's something I'd like to have under my belt for sure.

I do not have time at the moment, those 2 1959 Voice of music speaker/tube amp combos need to be completed first.

Thank you for stepping up and giving me the opportunity to make my turntable right!

Biggles

 

[FrankieKat]

First of all, major kudos for the pics and well-thought-through steps. Based on this thread I was able to rebuild my S600 that was completely frozen up, and it is now working like new.

If I may add two pieces of advice, based on my own mistakes:

1. Before you go crazy with cleaning the metal and plastic with alcohol or even mild cleaner, bear in mind the lettering might be completely water soluble. As in, I wiped off most of the words "Feather Touch" on the arm with some very mild soapy warm water I was using to get grime off of the tonearm.
2. Be extremely delicate if you try to clean dirt and grime off of the stabilizer/cleaner brush on the arm. The bristles are held in by a small clip and possibly some glue that on mine had long since failed. I applied light pressure with a damp fabric cloth to try to clean off the black dirt on the end and I ended up with a handful of brush fibers. Getting them back in is a job for someone with fingers 1/4 the size of mine and vision 4x better than mine.

Anyway, rookie mistake on my part and YMMV, but something to be mindful of!

FK

 

[drbiggles]

Completely water soluble. Amen to that brother man! I found that out the hard way with my Magnavox console. The lettering over the preamp face just wiped away with a simple wipe of warm water, bam. For me, I suppose it's not that big of a deal, it was free. I ended up dragging to work and it now resides in my office, does AM radio duty all day long. I'm glad I learned on this piece and not something I may do for someone else, or sell off.

Biggles

 

[LLCoolP1979]

FrankieKat, so glad I found you. I'm in the process of reassembling a S600 right now using the tutorial from the original post. However, I ran into two problems.

1. How exactly did you accomplish Step 16 (pic #67)? I'm having difficulty understanding this statement "Remove the 4 screws from the motor frame, separate 1/2's and oil the bearings." Did you happen to take pictures of your diss and reassembly of your project?

2. I have a piece that I cannot figure out where it goes. It fell out of the unit when I was disassembling it and I cannot locate in the tutorial where the piece is supposed to go. Currently I'm at work and don't have a picture of it. Basically is a thick washer about the size of a quarter that has a small hole in the center. When I get home I can snap and post a picture of the part, but was hoping you could quickly identify it since you just recently worked on one of these.

Thanks to all for this thread. It is more valuable than I can put into words.

 

[LLCoolP1979]

Unknown piece

Attached is the piece that popped out and I don't know where it goes.

Thanks.

 

[Vox T]

Just cleaned and relubed an 821 model Micromatic. However when I move the switch to auto position, it moves smoothly and I see the mechanism move but the tone arm does nothing and the record does not drop down.

I also tried it in the "on" position and moved the tonearm to the end of the record, again no tonearm pickup or movement. Any ideas?

 

[FrankieKat]

FrankieKat, so glad I found you. I'm in the process of reassembling a S600 right now using the tutorial from the original post. However, I ran into two problems.

1. How exactly did you accomplish Step 16 (pic #67)? I'm having difficulty understanding this statement "Remove the 4 screws from the motor frame, separate 1/2's and oil the bearings." Did you happen to take pictures of your diss and reassembly of your project?

2. I have a piece that I cannot figure out where it goes. It fell out of the unit when I was disassembling it and I cannot locate in the tutorial where the piece is supposed to go. Currently I'm at work and don't have a picture of it. Basically is a thick washer about the size of a quarter that has a small hole in the center. When I get home I can snap and post a picture of the part, but was hoping you could quickly identify it since you just recently worked on one of these.

Dang, I'm sorry I didn't see this until just now.

Regarding the motor, (if you haven't figured it out already), this is mostly a matter of completely removing the screws that hold the two sides of the motor together and will reveal the innards of the motor. I believe you would have already removed or loosened one of them to remove the grounding wire in step 10. The bottom bearing is on the inside of that part so give it a good flush and oil.

I found that I needed to do a little bit of careful tightening to re-align those two sides when reassembling so that the motor shaft was perfectly straight and spun freely. Once I got it oiled and back together that motor ran without making a sound!

Regarding the missing piece... if you look at picture 73, could it be this washer that sits between those two control bars?

I'm going to be doing another 600 very soon, so I'll take some more pictures of those two steps and post them to add to the thread.

FK

 

[FrankieKat]

How exactly did you accomplish Step 16 (pic #67)? I'm having difficulty understanding this statement "Remove the 4 screws from the motor frame, separate 1/2's and oil the bearings." Did you happen to take pictures of your diss and reassembly of your project?

So here's a pic of the motor with the halves separated:

I clean out the inside with alcohol to remove all the sticky gunk and then gently used a q-tip to get any sludge out of the bearing. Finally, I used a few small drops of Liquid Bearings there and also the bearing on the other side under the pulley/fan.

Pay close attention to the way the four screws holding it together go in terms of the order of lock washers, nuts, spacers, etc. One of them is short and doesn't attach to the plate so make sure you've marked which one goes there.

When putting it back together, make sure to only thumb tighten the screws at first and then alternate in lug fashion (like you would changing a car tire) tightening the screw opposite to it just a little bit and going back and forth. As you go, keep testing that you have the plates aligned by spinning the rotor -- it should spin freely for a few seconds and stop very slowly and smoothly and make absolutely no noise.

Just as another tip, here is how I do these in order to make sure I don't end up with "spare parts" at the end. Using all of those plastic Mouser bags I've collected, just put any removed pieces from each step into its own bag and write the step number on them.

Good luck!

FK

 

[FrankieKat]

The way to tell if the turntable is spinning correctly without drag (bearing condition and lube) is to let it run @ 33-1/3 for 30 minutes to warm it up. Then time the spin down time with your watch. 30 to 60 seconds is fair, 60-90 is good and 90 to 105 is excellent! Also download a strobe disk from Vinylengine.com and put it on the Turntable. It should run fairly accurately.





If it's slow, clean the idler wheel, and inner surface ofthe platter with 91% Isopropyl. reclean the center shaft, bearings, and relube.

Hi Larry,



So I have two S600s and have thoroughly cleaned and lubed both, and the best spin down time I can get from 33 RPM is 45-50 seconds. I feel no friction and hear no noise and just seems like it is winding down pretty effortlessly.



Have cleaned all of the parts thoroughly with also with a sonic cleaner. Been using spray white lithium grease and given each of the four metal parts of the bearing a light but solid coat, and have used both 3-in-1 and liquid bearings to lube the shaft.




Both of these are the smaller platters (9 1/2"), so I'm wondering if perhaps the lower mass and momentum might just spin down faster than the larger ones?



Anyone else have any times for the small 9 1/2" platters?



FK

 

[martmat]

Thanks so much for this!

I've had an old Magnavox for nearly 15 years. Got it at a thrift store for $35. Record player never worked properly. It would play records, but I had to put the tone arm on by hand, and during the middle of the record, it would often pick up the tone arm and cut off. It never cut off automatically at the end of the record.

I found this forum last night and rebuilt my turntable today. It now works, with the exception of not dropping records when there is more than one stacked on the spindle.

 

[martmat]

OK - I have done this twice and each time I get the same results: for the first day or two, things work like a charm. But within a very short time, it starts refusing to cycle. I rebuilt mine last night and it worked like a charm all night long. Not one single problem. When I came home today, I turned it on, the platter spun, but the arm didn't pick up. After several minutes of turning the switch over and over, the arm finally moved onto the record. But when it arrived at the end, it didn't pick up right away. So it's right back to hit or miss, with the miss seeming to win. Maybe I'm putting TOO much lubricant on?

 

[Dans67]

Hello all, new to the AK, first post. Anyway, I picked up this Maggie console a month or so ago at an estate sale. It worked, played records, probably should have let it be, but decided to clean it up, get the old caked on grease out of it. The teardown and rebuild seemed to go well enough, but now the record will not play. If I go "Auto" everything will go through the motions, all the way to where the tone arm sit's upon the record for a few seconds, then it's like we're at the end of the record, the tone arm goes home and it shuts down. Any ideas where to start? I'm taking the dogs for a stroll in this 20 degree New England winter, then back to tear it down again. I think I'll start at the aforementioned linkages that gave those other guys problems, then who knows? I realize this is an old thread, but it's a super awesome resource for the Micromatic guys, thanks!

 

[FrankieKat]

Hello all, new to the AK, first post. Anyway, I picked up this Maggie console a month or so ago at an estate sale. It worked, played records, probably should have let it be, but decided to clean it up, get the old caked on grease out of it. The teardown and rebuild seemed to go well enough, but now the record will not play. If I go "Auto" everything will go through the motions, all the way to where the tone arm sit's upon the record for a few seconds, then it's like we're at the end of the record, the tone arm goes home and it shuts down. Any ideas where to start? I'm taking the dogs for a stroll in this 20 degree New England winter, then back to tear it down again. I think I'll start at the aforementioned linkages that gave those other guys problems, then who knows? I realize this is an old thread, but it's a super awesome resource for the Micromatic guys, thanks!

One thing pops to mind and that it that the "Striker Feed Lever" or the "Striker Arm Assembly" found itself into the wrong place. The arm assembly I recall being a real booger as I kept finding it not between the little posts it is supposed to be. See pic below:

See attached exploded view too.

This site I found to be an interesting read on the theory of operation of the changer (though it doesn't cover the trip mechanism you are having the problems with).

http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/collaro.htm

Good luck!

FK

 

[Dans67]

That indeed was it, I think I found the problem around the same time you posted this. The peg was outside the assembly rather than in the slot on the right hand side. Now it plays again!

For some reason though, it skips badly now. Before I don't think it had ever skipped, now it seems that on any imperfection it's skipping badly. There is a new needle in it, but it was doing it with the old one. Once I got it playing, I noticed the skipping, swapped the needle, and it's still skipping. Working on leveling it out, the back wheels had pushed through the fiber board leaving it way off level, although it never skipped before. Thank you for the reply!

 

[FrankieKat]

That indeed was it, I think I found the problem around the same time you posted this. The peg was outside the assembly rather than in the slot on the right hand side. Now it plays again!

For some reason though, it skips badly now. Before I don't think it had ever skipped, now it seems that on any imperfection it's skipping badly. There is a new needle in it, but it was doing it with the old one. Once I got it playing, I noticed the skipping, swapped the needle, and it's still skipping. Working on leveling it out, the back wheels had pushed through the fiber board leaving it way off level, although it never skipped before. Thank you for the reply!

Definitely make sure it's leveled first. Are you seeing/hearing any vibration on the platter? Does the arm swing and rotate freely if you move it by hand?

I know that after I rebuilt mine, I had to re-set the tracking force on it (not entirely sure why, but I did) -- though on that cartridge you'd probably first notice poor sound if the tracking force was way off. If you've got one of the original generation of cartridges on that, it'll want 5g+ of force. Of course my scale only goes to 5g, so I ended up just adjusting it until it sounded best.

FK

 

[Dans67]

The arm moves well, no binding or anything throughout the movement. No vibration that I can see, it seems to be at least as smooth as before, although it still spins only for 20-25 seconds after it's shut down. How is the tracking force measured? That's the knob on the back of the arm right?

 

[FrankieKat]

The arm moves well, no binding or anything throughout the movement. No vibration that I can see, it seems to be at least as smooth as before, although it still spins only for 20-25 seconds after it's shut down. How is the tracking force measured? That's the knob on the back of the arm right?

Yeah, on mine it's a flat head screw under the arm that adjusts a spring. It's pretty crude and clumsy, but that's all the adjustment you get. More crudely, you can try to set a dime or two on top of the headshell while it's playing just to see if tracking force makes any difference at all (don't recommend doing this for very long or on a record you particularly love).

Also, have you tried many different records? I have found that some records just do not play well (or at all) on that era of stylus (Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", Joe Jackson "Day and Night"). Gary Stork (V-M Audio) calls this the "Rule of 10", (see FAQ Q5-7 "I just replaced the needle and still some of my records skip! What's wrong?" on his site: http://thevoiceofmusic.com/faq_restoration.html#recFAQ).

FK