Lapslah
Super Member
A little background - I bought my TD124 at a church rummage sale in about 2000. You don't want to know what I paid. 
I got it home, cleaned it and lubed it, and it has served me well for about 14 years with no trouble. Replaced the arm and cart, made a new armboard - regular stuff. It has always taken about a full side (20 minutes, give or take) to settle in at full speed. I'm told this is normal, and is even referenced in the manual. I always spin it by hand before starting it up because I figure anything I can do to reduce the stress on a 50 year old motor is wise. It has always been silent in the room - until you drop the needle. Then there is a motor hum that is clearly being picked up by through the needle and transferred to the output. It's not horrible, and only noticeable on quiet passages with the volume cranked up. But the motor still has the original rivets, so I figure it's time...
There have been many write-ups on similar rebuilds - some of them very good. In fact, I used them myself for reference. But I have seen others ask for detailed step-by-step instructions, so that's what I'm going to attempt to do here. I'll probably get TOO detailed for many. Also be forewarned - I claim no special expertise. Like many of us here, I'm just the guy who tried it, and here's how it went...
I started by measuring just how bad the noise was by cranking up my amp and using the dB meter on my phone (which is admittedly not calibrated and reads high, but it's all I had) while the needle was traversing the silent tracks on a test record. The motor noise coming through the speakers peaked at 67dB on the scale. I'm pushing about 775 watts/channel through 4 Ohms. I hope to recreate the same conditions when I'm done to see if there's a measurable difference (God, I hope so).
So here's my starting point:
I got it home, cleaned it and lubed it, and it has served me well for about 14 years with no trouble. Replaced the arm and cart, made a new armboard - regular stuff. It has always taken about a full side (20 minutes, give or take) to settle in at full speed. I'm told this is normal, and is even referenced in the manual. I always spin it by hand before starting it up because I figure anything I can do to reduce the stress on a 50 year old motor is wise. It has always been silent in the room - until you drop the needle. Then there is a motor hum that is clearly being picked up by through the needle and transferred to the output. It's not horrible, and only noticeable on quiet passages with the volume cranked up. But the motor still has the original rivets, so I figure it's time...There have been many write-ups on similar rebuilds - some of them very good. In fact, I used them myself for reference. But I have seen others ask for detailed step-by-step instructions, so that's what I'm going to attempt to do here. I'll probably get TOO detailed for many. Also be forewarned - I claim no special expertise. Like many of us here, I'm just the guy who tried it, and here's how it went...
I started by measuring just how bad the noise was by cranking up my amp and using the dB meter on my phone (which is admittedly not calibrated and reads high, but it's all I had) while the needle was traversing the silent tracks on a test record. The motor noise coming through the speakers peaked at 67dB on the scale. I'm pushing about 775 watts/channel through 4 Ohms. I hope to recreate the same conditions when I'm done to see if there's a measurable difference (God, I hope so).
So here's my starting point:
That's WAYYY better than I expected. I'm a happy camper. :thmbsp:
