Sticky tonearm lifter on old Rega TT


I've been getting way back into vinyl of late, with an old Rega Planar 2 TT (with Incognito rewire and Expressimo counterweight). But all of a sudden, the tonearm lifter thing -- whatever that is called -- has begun to stick, not only not going all the way down when I start a record, but it also seems to be a bit crooked, a tiny bit elevated on the far end so that the tonearm begins to rub against it as the record is playing. (At least when the darn thing hasn't gone all the way down, if I'm making any sense here.) Is there some kind of adjustment that I don't know about? A secret screw, perhaps? A place to hit the thing with a hammer? Or should I just throw up my hands and buy a P5, which I'd prefer not to do until I move?Thanks for any help you can give me with this.
-- Howard
hodu
hellu hodu,
You can ajust lifter by loosen grubb screw at fron of plastic curve peice but you need verry small alien key for this. Do n't by P5 - I had had own one but was not worth money I pay for it :-(
A similar thing happened to my P3 when it had been stored for 5 years. I found it just gradually loosened up of its own accord. A little warmth seemed to help. I cannot remember if I put a little WD40 on the stem, but that would probably be my next step.
Sounds like from your description that something got askew either by impact or mfgs. defect. I would contact the distributer and see if there are any parts available that you can rebuild the lift mechanism. If not force it down out of "arms way" and do the old finger lift and que. I would spare that hammer for now...or at least a while.
There isn't any adjustment on the lift assembly. I had P5 that had pretty much the same issue. I had to replace the the actuator in the assembly. It was pretty simple and not complicated at all. I ask of members pretty much same as you. I got responses from try a lubricant to lightly sanding the rod that goes up and down. If memory serves me correctly. I beleive the assembly cost around forty dollars and it took under thirty minutes to replace.