Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Turntable working on and off


My Pro-ject TT is working again, but 3 times this year it has shut down and won't spin.

After the 1st time, I took off the band and put it back on, and not much else except for that. It worked fine for a while.

2nd time - I got a new band. Started working again.

3rd time, removed the inner platter and re-placed it, and the put the band back on. It's working again.

It's not a connection issue as far as I can tell.

It's fine now, but I can't feel confident it will stay this way.

It's about 9 or 10 years old. Great when it plays...

I've gotten lazy about picking up the tonearm when an LP ends, and have let it stay on the run-out for a while a bunch of times. I've since stopped doing that, but I wonder if that had an effect.

What do you consider the problem and potential solution might be?

Thank you.

 

kbmr

@kbmr 

Not sure if there are any places that show how to clean and maintain TT's. First get your supplies...

1. q-tips or other swabers to clean out the bearing and other little areas

2. Glass cleaner, furniture cleaner, isopropyl alcohol.

3. 2-3 microfiber towels, maybe some paper towels

4. compressed air

Remove the TT cover, put it aside

remove the main platter, put aside,

remove belt, try not to touch it much with your hands, put it aside

remove sub platter, put aside

Spray the TT deck off with compressed air. Then take a MF towel, spray with cleaner, clean the entire deck.

see, that little hole where the sub plater went into? blow some compressed air in there, then take your swab, dip in the iso, clean that area. Might have to do it 2-3 times till the swab is clean. Then use a naked clean swab to get anything left over. Blow in more compressed air. Then use the paper towel with some iso on it to clean the sub platter shaft, also the sides where the belt goes. You can also clean off the belt gear on the motor.

Use a little bit of lube on the shaft, and a little bit of lube on a swab, swab the bearing. Insert the sub plater. It might hang in the air when lubed, I "spin" it on, it should spin very freely, and slowly go down into position. 

Reinstall belt, try not to paw it too much 

Clean the platter on both sides, reinstall

Take the compressed air, and blow out the tonearm bearings, try to put a tube on the compressed air, to get into the little areas. 

Take your glass cleaner, spray the other MF towel, clean the dust cover, reinstall

Then check all the settings on the tonearm. Anti-skate might be off, as well as tracking force. If you haven't in a while, might as well clean the needle. A blast of compressed air is good, but not too close, and do it from the back forward. Then use your needle brush. 

Re-lube the bearing every few months. But always clean it first. 

@mswale thank you! Great, easy, simple directions. Fantastic.

You've helped me to up my game, and I appreciate it.

I will do all of this as soon as the lube I ordered arrives. Will be here in a day or two.

You rock!

@msale - I want to thank you, again for writing out those directions for cleaning the turntable.

I finally got to it last night.

OMGosh, I went through 10 or so Q-Tips in cleaning it out. But it's good now, and after I put the fresh lubricant on and placed the inner platter, it spun and spun freely. Terrific.

Actually, I had realized that just taking it out a couple of times and re-placing it is what had freed it up enough to work for a little while. That's why it was working on and off. So - hopefully the motor hasn't been too stressed and it should run for a good while. I have plenty of other things to spend money on rather than a new TT at this point. And it sounds damn good.

I was befuddled.

You set me straight. And all is cost me was $32 to buy the proper lubricant. Probably didn't even need to spend that amount.

Much appreciated.