Technics SL - P2

[Eastham]

Grabbed myself a Technics SL - P2 for the costly sum of £20 advertised as "Disc not spinning"



It got here today and sure enough it didn't play so, I cracked it open and found the laser sled wasn't in it's resting place, moved it back, put a disc in and it played, until about 1:40 when it would just jump back in the CD. So I dug deeper and found that the laser sled and the disc drawer drive belts are both completely dried out and rock solid...



So while it's all apart I decided to clean and lube everything, gave the motors a drop of oil, put a thin layer of lithium grease on the slidey parts and everything moves quietly and freely like it should.



I've got a pair of belts on the way Royal mail first class! No mucking about, one 50mm in circumference and one 25mm. Or 2 inch and a 1 inch for those using freedom units.

 

[AdamAnt316]

Nice find! I once had a SL-P2 like that, albeit in black, which I found at a yard sale for a couple bucks. As found, it played CDs, though it was rather erratic. On some discs, it would play them without issues; with others, it would often get stuck in the same place(s). I was told to clean the laser rails with naptha, which I tried, but it didn't seem to work. I eventually threw it away; however, I recently picked up a SL-P1, which looks much the same as your silver SL-P2 (not sure off-hand what the difference between the P1 and P2 is). It too gets stuck in places during playback, but I'm hoping to fix it up right this time.
-Adam

 

[Eastham]

Nice find! I once had a SL-P2 like that, albeit in black, which I found at a yard sale for a couple bucks. As found, it played CDs, though it was rather erratic. On some discs, it would play them without issues; with others, it would often get stuck in the same place(s). I was told to clean the laser rails with naptha, which I tried, but it didn't seem to work. I eventually threw it away; however, I recently picked up a SL-P1, which looks much the same as your silver SL-P2 (not sure off-hand what the difference between the P1 and P2 is). It too gets stuck in places during playback, but I'm hoping to fix it up right this time.
-Adam

The skipping is a common failure on these, It's caused by the little belt that moves the laser assembly sled slipping due to age. Just replace it and it should work nicely. Also, try cleaning the laser just get a cotton swab with some 90% isopropyl alcohol and lightly wipe the laser lens.

 

[Eastham]

So the drawer still felt a little sticky so I decided to tear it apart and clean and relube it too. I was a bit intimidated at first but in the end it was actually quite simple. The old grease had turned sticky and hard, cleaned it off and replaced it with some nice fresh grease. The drawer opens smoothly and nicely.

 

[dodog]

Nice! That angled front reminds me of the old Philips/Magnavox units.

 

[Eastham]

All back together after disassembling the face plate for cleaning, Looks pretty good now.

 

[Eastham]

Belts are here, Royal mail don't mess around. Gonna get them installed.

 

[Eastham]

Hmm, seems the way the seller measures their belts is different. They don't lay a belt out and stretch it with two pencils rather just lay it out and measure it unstreched... Weird so the belts where to big, luckily the smaller one fits for the CD tray and I've ordered another belt from them which should fit... I hope. CD tray opens nicely now though.

 

[GD70]

Nice looking player.
How's it sounding?
Cheers!

 

[Eastham]

Nice looking player.
How's it sounding?
Cheers!

Still haven't gotten the laser sled belt, this one is coming from Germany so it should be here by the end of this week or the start of next week. Ended up buying a belt kit specifically for this player, I'll update as soon as the belts get here!

 

[Electone]

I have a P3 and replaced the belts, lubricated everything and even replaced all the electrolytic caps while I was in there. It's a great sounding/looking player.

 

[Eastham]

Belt just came in, and I'm listening to it play as I type this. Such a lovely CD player that doesn't look out of place in any vintage silver faced system.

 

[Eastham]

Watching the CD spin thru the window on the front is pretty neat.

 

[RedShift42]

Late to the party, but could be useful for someone else finding this thread…

Took the belts from my malfunctioning SL-P3 down to the local hydraulics repair shop where they have a vast selection of O-rings. Total cost maybe $1 and they should have an even longer service life than the originals.
Note, I can’t remember which one, it’s been several years, but couldn’t make an exact match for one of them so went with slightly larger because the O-rings have less stretch than the originals. Slight slippage was an issue until it was wiped with alcohol and lightly scuffed with fine sandpaper.

 

[Eastham]

Late to the party, but could be useful for someone else finding this thread…

Took the belts from my malfunctioning SL-P3 down to the local hydraulics repair shop where they have a vast selection of O-rings. Total cost maybe $1 and they should have an even longer service life than the originals.
Note, I can’t remember which one, it’s been several years, but couldn’t make an exact match for one of them so went with slightly larger because the O-rings have less stretch than the originals. Slight slippage was an issue until it was wiped with alcohol and lightly scuffed with fine sandpaper.

I never thought about O-rings. Good to know for future reference, Thanks Red! It's been a while since I used this CD player, the VFD failed on it a while ago, I managed to rejuvinate it kinda by using my bench power supply but it's still quite dim. I ripped all my CD's to my PC since then.