Darby Crash
Well-Known Member
Kind of a follow up from the 2050 problems others have had.
Well I have been searching for an entry tt for the last 3 months and in SoCal if the word "vintage" is attached you can expect to pay more for junk. I found a Sansui SR-2050c on C-list for $200. Complete and working, near perfect cover, great wood and even the little tracking weight that is usually missing. I got it for 150.
Got it home and found 2 things wrong, the lift didn't work and the tone arm had some weird sprung tension to it. When you put it in its base it was sprung so if you tapped the table or didn't have a good hold on the shell hook it would spring across the platter to the center. Not good. Oh and the sponge feet were wasted.
I pulled the bottom off and started with some compressed air to blow the dust out. Then went through how the lift mech works. I read a few posts where the rubber grommets at the start switch were replaced and that fixed it. Well I couldn't figure out where they were replaced so instead I made a small wood wedge and used that to fill the little gap between the end of the lift and the lift arm. Works fine, will it last? Well if not ill try the grommet replacement.
Then I spent about 20mins staring at the arm, Auto Stop and Auto Lift mech and finally found why the arm had spring tension. There was metal to metal contact between the Auto Stop and Auto Lift levers. Well one has a magnet that needs to stay aligned with the Auto Stop reed switch so I was able to make a slight tweak to the lever and that fixed the clearance issue. Problem solved, balanced the arm and its good to go.
I oiled the recommended spots, lightly re-greased the spindle and ordered a new belt. Will probably get a new cartridge also. Then deal with the flimsy bottom and new feet.
On The Vinyl Engine I was able to download the Service Manual, Operating Instructions, Original Sansui product booklet and even a Manual for the tone arm (it was also sold separately).
So not bad really because for the market out here I could probably get $200 for it now.
Just wanted to say thanks to the posts I've read that helped me work through the issues.
Mike
Well I have been searching for an entry tt for the last 3 months and in SoCal if the word "vintage" is attached you can expect to pay more for junk. I found a Sansui SR-2050c on C-list for $200. Complete and working, near perfect cover, great wood and even the little tracking weight that is usually missing. I got it for 150.
Got it home and found 2 things wrong, the lift didn't work and the tone arm had some weird sprung tension to it. When you put it in its base it was sprung so if you tapped the table or didn't have a good hold on the shell hook it would spring across the platter to the center. Not good. Oh and the sponge feet were wasted.
I pulled the bottom off and started with some compressed air to blow the dust out. Then went through how the lift mech works. I read a few posts where the rubber grommets at the start switch were replaced and that fixed it. Well I couldn't figure out where they were replaced so instead I made a small wood wedge and used that to fill the little gap between the end of the lift and the lift arm. Works fine, will it last? Well if not ill try the grommet replacement.
Then I spent about 20mins staring at the arm, Auto Stop and Auto Lift mech and finally found why the arm had spring tension. There was metal to metal contact between the Auto Stop and Auto Lift levers. Well one has a magnet that needs to stay aligned with the Auto Stop reed switch so I was able to make a slight tweak to the lever and that fixed the clearance issue. Problem solved, balanced the arm and its good to go.
I oiled the recommended spots, lightly re-greased the spindle and ordered a new belt. Will probably get a new cartridge also. Then deal with the flimsy bottom and new feet.
On The Vinyl Engine I was able to download the Service Manual, Operating Instructions, Original Sansui product booklet and even a Manual for the tone arm (it was also sold separately).
So not bad really because for the market out here I could probably get $200 for it now.
Just wanted to say thanks to the posts I've read that helped me work through the issues.
Mike
