Elac 770h, 50h (ll) tone arm lift damper

Catmanboo

Analog guy, meet digital world - HELP!!
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Anyone else have the juice leak out of their tonearm damper? My 770h has a gooey mess going on all over the damper, wondering what or how to rejuvenate it, if at all possible. :eek:
 
If you have some Silicon Oil 300,000 or 500,000 it's not difficult to clean and replace the "fluid". It's really not fluid, but very thick silicon oil.

Just redid my 770h, so the instructions are fresh.
Remove platter(unless the clip is in place)
remove headshell(after locking tonearm
remove counterweight

take table out of base, and locate cueing mechanism. Notice the cueing arm moves a bent wire which is inserted into a hole in the cueing shaft, and also attached with a washer and post clip on the other end.
for tools you need a small pointed tool to remove the clip, don't lose it.....put clip and washer to the side. Note the spring is above the wire, not below!
a 7mm wrench to remove the nut on the bottom of the cueing shaft. Hold the cueing wing which is directly under the tonearm, until you can remove the nut easily. Both should unthread easily due to the oil/grease on the shaft. Pay attention to how far the second nut is threaded onto the shaft before you remove it. After removing the first nut, you can remove a black steel plate which also has a spring. Clean it and put to the side, no reason to remove the small spring, just make sure it is clean and can move.
remove second nut, then unlock tonearm amd move toward center of turntable, and then you can spin the cueing shaft from the top to miss the tonearm and lift it out.

Clean the shaft with lighter fluid or some other grease cutting cleaner, even deoxit will work. If you have a pipe cleaner you can try to clean the tube that the cueing shaft is inserted into, but I did not find that necssary.
Add some new silicon oil noted above around the two grooves on the shaft, and insert it back into the tube. Check that it moves up and down by finger pressure, and if so, reinstall the other parts in reverse. Note also the black plate has a notch that fits around a small shaft kind of hard to see hidden behind another piece of the tonearm mechanism. Remember the spring goes above the wire that is inserted into the cueing shaft.
BEFORE you reinstall the table back in the base, put the table face up on the work surface, install the counterweight, install the headshell(you can remove the stylus if worried about damage. do a quik balance and add tracking force, then check the cueing action. At this point table is still unplugged for this check. IF you left the platter on AND if you're still unplugged, doesn't hurt to have any record place on the mat just so you don't screw up the stylus.

Happy Listening!!
jim

Sounds complicated, but really it's just a careful disassembly, and reassembly
 
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Outstanding instructions! Tnx,Jim. I didn't know if that was curable. I wonder if that stuff will stay put once I get some & get time to deal with. Where did you find said fluid? I have on hand a bottle of polydimethylsiloxane, but I'm sure it's too light. Meanwhile, I'll keep manually easing the tonearm down with the lever.I forgot once the other night, let it cycle normally & it hit the lp hard. Speakers didn't blow, luckily, as also forgot to hit the audio mute button prior to the process. Oops!:whip:
 
You can find Silicon Oil 300k or 500k at a hobby shop.
I have a 40cc bottle which may be the smallest you can buy BUT they may have a very small tube....go for that because you need very little.
You probably can buy a tube from say Parts Express
 
By the way, during cycling the tonearm doesn't use the manual cueing, because the base of the tonearm has a rest which is separate from the cueing. Check that it is functioning correctly because the arm should NOT drop quickly when cycled, only may drop fast if the cueing oil has reached its life end
 
Thanks again, I'd never heard of that stuff. One thing about these elacs I love is their sheer torque! I hit every lp with a dampened disc washer or something similar, as it's turning. These elacs just grunt & go, hardly slows them down. Can't do it the same way on a direct or belt drive. I've had a 50h also, since '76, bought it while stationed in Turkey while in the a.f. It's currently out of service, but that may (will) change, eventually.
 
That's what's happening, damping shot. I can pull up on tonearm lifter bar, just snaps back down.
Also have an elac 620 in the attic with a seized platter which won't pull off, another project for the future.
 
There are ways to release the platter, check other Miracord threads, actually any thread involving removing stuck platters, or get back to me when you decide to do it.
The process is not "Today I want to remove the platter!". It takes a few days probably once on the bench. You're not opening a manhole cover :(
 
By the way, during cycling the tonearm doesn't use the manual cueing, because the base of the tonearm has a rest which is separate from the cueing. Check that it is functioning correctly because the arm should NOT drop quickly when cycled, only may drop fast if the cueing oil has reached its life end
I believe that the 50H II does indeed use the manual cueing while cycling, I know my 770H does (I just redid the silicone paste).

EDIT: Sorry I didn’t see that this was an old thread.
 
I believe that the 50H II does indeed use the manual cueing while cycling, I know my 770H does (I just redid the silicone paste).

EDIT: Sorry I didn’t see that this was an old thread.
I just cycled my 770h to refute or verify. Mine is raised & dropped by a mechanically-actuated pot-metal-looking block from below, which resides behind the cueing bar/actuating plunger. Maybe yours is a later version? Also, looking at 770h & 50h side-by-side, they're pretty much same mechanically excepting the 50h lacks speed control, strobe & ring & the stylus timer. To verify, run yours at 78rpm & see how fast the tonearm drops (without cue lever raised). Protect your stylus if trying this!
 
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