Pioneer PL-600 Turntable Interconnects Rewire

[hakaplan]

First you need to get hold of a Pioneer PL-600. Without that, this won't work. There were two turntables with this model number. This pertains to the first version, silver with s-tonearm. For beginners or newcomers to soldering, this isn't the best project to attack cold, so I suggest practicing soldering first. When I get to that part I'll describe the soldering technique that works best for this particular situation. Practice that technique first on a junk board before tackling the soldering here.

If you see a red "X" over anything appearing in the photos that shouldn't be there, it means it should have been removed.

See Photo 1. Remove the dust cover, mat, platter, headshell, and counterweight. Remove the black sub-platter plate by removing the 4 screws circled in red.

See Photo 2. This is a view of the underside to show the feet. Each foot is held in with a screw. Keep the turntable right side up, but slide it over the edge of the work surface just far enough to unscrew each of the screws in turn. The feet will stay attached.

See Photo 3. Remove the three white, plastic connectors as circled. Also remove the two screws, one holding a wire tie, the other attaching a ground lug to the bottom of the case. And remove the exposed screw holding down the tonearm assembly.

Move the tonearm into the platter area. Lift up the base chassis, maneuvering it over the rear of the tonearm and fold it over. See Photo 4. This is actually an "after" shot but you get the idea.

See Photo 5. Just noting here the inside springs of the feet. They were damped with a rubber covering which has probably begun to disintegrate like this one. It's up to you what you want to do about it. Maybe you can figure out some replacement like maybe pipe insulation or just wrap tape around them to secure them, or whatever. I just left them as is.

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[hakaplan]

See Photo 6. You are looking at the tonearm assembly as still attached to the bottom. (Again an "after" shot, but just to illustrate.) Remove the two remaining screws circled. The assembly will come free of the bottom. Put the bottom aside for now.

See Photo 7. Not a great photo of what I'm going to describe. It's the cord strain relief plug that's inserted in the hole in the back of the base chassis. If you use a pliers to rotate the plug about 180 degrees, then squeeze on the part inside the base, and it should slide out the back--that's what you're seeing in the photo.

See Photo 8. Turn over the tonearm assembly so that you're looking at the underside. Here you see the cueing mechanism (circled) as well as the circuit board to which the interconnects and tonearm wires are soldered. Photo 9 shows a better close up of the cueing mechanism. If the cueing belt is broken or loose, this would be the time to replace it. I believe it's smaller than the one on the PL-630, and I don't know an official source, but found a small, thin rubber band with light to medium tension works fine. You might find an "O' ring in the hardware store that matches or comes close.

This would also be the time to add or replace the grease on the worm and gear, if necessary. I usually add some more (white lithium grease), but I've yet to find a Japanese table where it's dried up or hardened--it's usually fine.

See Photo 10. We're going to desolder the old interconnect and ground wire. Heat up the soldering iron. Make sure the tip is clean. I use a damp sponge or a fine metal file to clean it. One by one heat one of the solder joints while pulling up on the wire with a needle nose pliers and remove the 5 wires. In this case the joints are marked and the tonearm wire colors also identify which spot goes with which interconnect wire. Unbend the wire tie near the circuit board to free up the interconnects and put them aside.

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[hakaplan]

Preparing the new cable.

I will be using the Petra video cable, similar to Belden 1694A, solid core with stranded and foil shield. I've been using 5 feet--you can make it that long (probably even 6 feet really) because it's low in capacitance. Be sure to note which cable is Left and Right--maybe use a piece of tape.

Photo 11 shows the various stages of removing the outer insulation, gathering and twisting the shield strands into a single wire, removing the foil, and stripping the inner core wire.

I use 20 gauge stranded copper for ground wire. It doesn't have to be this thick--anything up to 26 gauge is fine. Cut a piece the same length as your cable and strip off about 3/16" of insulation off one end.

See Photo 12. Let's go back to the base. You're going to run the new cable and ground wire into the base through the hole in the back. In Photo 13 you can see the affair I fabricated from a piece of cable insulation to cover the edges of the hole and provide a sort of strain relief. Another idea is to just slide the cable through the bare hole and later fill it up with black silicone caulk. Or you could do both. Slide a few feet of cable and ground wire through the hole, into the base--enough to be able to bring around to solder to the circuit board.

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[hakaplan]

See Photo 14. With the solder spots bare you can see that some of the solder came off with the old wire. You have to put some more on--place the iron on each spot and add enough solder to make a slightly raised mound. Sorry--no picture of that.

Getting ready to solder.

Pick up the RIGHT cable. Put a bend the solid core wire so that it will lie flat against the solder spot. Tin about 3/16" of both wires. Photo 15 is what it should look like. Place enough insulation on the stranded wire to leave exposed about 3/16". I just reused the insulation from the old cable. We'll start on the left side of the circuit board. Using a needle nose pliers hold the stranded wire down against the RG solder spot and place the iron onto the spot, the solder will melt and the wire will sink down into it. Remove the iron and hold the wire steady for a second until solid. Repeat with solid core wire on the R solder spot.

Tin the GROUND wire and and solder to the third (middle) spot (no letter identification).

Pick up the LEFT cable and prepare the wires as with the RIGHT cable. Then solder the stranded wire to the LG spot and the solid wire to the L spot. Photo 16 shows how it should look. Gather the cables and ground wire and route them back through that wire tie nearby along with the other wires already there and rebend the tie back down.

Strip the loose end of the ground wire--you can leave it like that or for a more professional look and ease of use crimp or solder on a spade lug--you could use the one from the old interconnects.

Photo 17. Go find the turntable bottom. Make sure your cat wasn't using it as a litter box. Turn the tonearm assembly right side up and position it on the bottom as shown.

Photo 18. Reattach the assembly with 3 screws as circled, and reattach the ground lug and wire tie as circled.

Slide some of the excess cable back through the hole in the base. It's fine to leave slack for ease of reassembly and future disassembly. Move the tonearm over the platter area, and fold the base chassis back, careful to maneuver it over the tonearm. Orient it properly in place. Reattach the 3 plastic connectors. Reseat the black sub-platter plate and screw in with the 4 screws. Screw in the 4 feet screws. Put back the platter, mat, headshell, and counterweight and go play some music.

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[Cactus Bob]

That is one clear & concise tutorial Howard. Very well done, Thanks :thmbsp:

 

[tojohndillon]

Hi Howard, I have a PL-600 with the orginal VERY THIN 6 wires to the cartridge. I believe I was told those should be replaced with something much better. Thoughts?

 

[Bstable]

 

[Willie Gee]

fantastic thread! I'm also interested in the tone arm wires... is there a benefit for upgrading these?

 

[bamaboy]

old thread made new, tonearm wont return. help.

I performed this operation on my pl600 yesterday, it sounds great and the job was made mucho easier using this step by step process, thanks for the great info hakaplan!

I replaced the pully belt with a rubber band and greased it, it seems to work fine when i hit the start/stop button, but it will not return automatically at the end of the record. Its as if it doesnt realize it is at the end, so the motor that returns the tonearm doesnt engage. Is there an adjustment for this? It did it once, on the bench, buti cannot get it to work again now that its all back together and hooked up in the system. again, everything works perfect, except at the end of the record, the needle just stays in the lead out groove lead out groove lead out groove lead out groove lead out groove lead out groove lead out groove........

 

[pioneervato]

Start a new thread on your problem. You will probably get more responses that way.

 

[se7en8n9ne]

great thread

hello Howard (or anyone else who knows the answer),

is there any reason this wouldn't work on a pl-115d?
i only ask because you said at the beginning that you had to have a pl-600 or this wouldn't work, i didn't know if that was hyperbole or serious.
thanks for your time, Brian