Any information about this old beast?
- Thread starter Aladdinsane
- Start date
Aladdinsane
Active Member
Are you referring to the bearing balls falling out? Is there no way to get those back in?
Aladdinsane
Active Member
I'm pretty sure I found them all, just not sure how to go about getting them back in...
But yeah it seems pretty solid to me. Never really seen anything like it. I just did a little relubing/restoration on my dual 1219 so I'm at least somewhat familiar with idler drives, I'll probably repeat the process with the motor and drive system on this thing and see how it sounds. Pretty cool looking.
tnsilver
Stereo Puppy
TA looks empire 980/990 to me. The platter looks empire'ish/rek-o-kut in dimension and the on/off switch is likely RS. The upper deck appears to follow the empire'ish plinth style too but the execution looks totally DIY. The belt is just speed control connector - not a drive belt. It's an idler. I'm pretty sure it's a DIY project.
Tonearm is an Empire 98 arm, the first one they sold. And yeah, those ball bearings...I warned about that in my main Empire thread. A pity you didn't have that information. Would have saved a lot of swearing I'm sure! 
As long as you have them all, you can reassemble the arm with minimal fuss.
Unfortunately that's not the stock Empire headshell, but what looks like a generic "standard" one. It might work, might not. (IIRC, it will fit, and tighten, but the pins won't align exactly. Might cause issues like hum.) Originals are rarer than hen's teeth, sadly.
As long as you have them all, you can reassemble the arm with minimal fuss.
Unfortunately that's not the stock Empire headshell, but what looks like a generic "standard" one. It might work, might not. (IIRC, it will fit, and tighten, but the pins won't align exactly. Might cause issues like hum.) Originals are rarer than hen's teeth, sadly.
savatage1973
Addicted Member
My thoughts exactly--the "tell" (to me, at least) were the rather "rough" cuts around the openings hidden under the platter.
What happened is the little collar that is held by a set screw onto the end of the arm (where the wires are poking out from) must have been loose and finally slipped some, allowing all the ball bearings to do a jailbreak.
As long as you have that collar and all the ball bearings, you CAN get it back together again. Won't be easy, but it can be done.
Do we know the size of those bearings? Rule of thumb around those little balls in any shop I've worked is replace them if they get dropped (and contaminated) or even if you bothered to just open them. They cost pennies. If you can get the size that is.
The other rule of thumb is that the right quanity, if not known already, is a full race less 1. In other words, if you could make 25 just fit, 24 should be right. It leaves just enough leeway so they don't have to touch each other.
Sadly, I do not. But if the OP has a modern digital caliper, it should be easy to determine.
Over the years I've wondered if changing the types of the ball bearings would have any appreciable change in performance (i.e.: ceramic or jeweled bearings instead of the steel ones Empire used.)
tnsilver
Stereo Puppy
I've replaced BTD-12S stock steel balls with overly expensive tungsten balls after overhauling the bearing cups. There's 18 of them, at around $5 a pop. I can't report an audible difference but the TA stopped binding, which got me happy enough. For the next one I spent $5 on 20 silicon nitrate balls from China and got exactly the same effect. Stainless steel balls do get rusty (don't ask me how) or rough or dirty over the decades.
Aladdinsane
Active Member
Thanks for all of the info everybody. The turntable will probably sit around for a bit until I have the time/motivation to restore it to its former glory. Should be a fun project though
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