barf_perro
New Member
Hi everyone. Apologies in advance, but I’m a real novice in terms of audio troubleshooting and repair. I might get some standard terminology wrong. I'm hoping someone can provide some guidance on how to repair or at least better troubleshoot an issue I’m having.
I was handed down a Pioneer PL-30 from my father and I’m pretty enamored with it - I’d really like to make it my primary turntable going forward. Cosmetically, it looks fantastic, but it had several of what appear to be the standard issues at its age: unresponsive controls, erratic speed, pitch control issues, dead right channel, etc. The switches and knobs would actually crunch when I manipulated them! This unit had been stored in the open in a dirty, dusty basement for literally decades, unused.
I’m happy to report that after opening it up and cleaning most of the switches and potentiometers with Deoxit D5 and Fader F4, it appears that most of the issues have been resolved. The one lingering issue is the dead (or more accurately, incredibly muted) right channel. If I turn the balance on the receiver all the way to the right and turn up the volume, I can hear a slight whisper of audio coming through, but barely anything. When I put the receiver on mono rather than stereo, it works just fine. This is not an issue with the receiver, as I have other turntables and components that work perfectly well when hooked up.
I have a multimeter and have essentially started to learn how to use it a little bit by trying to figure out the issue here. I’ve tested continuity all the way from the headshell to the RCA jack that inputs into the receiver. The left channel (both positive and ground) are good all the way through, and the right channel (ground only) seems to be good all the way through as well. This obviously leads me to believe that there is a break somewhere along the right positive.
The side of the RCA cables that go into the turntable itself are housed in a plastic clip, that then clips onto a series of metal prongs which are connected to the board on the bottom of the tonearm. I again get continuity all the way from the right positive tonearm spring pin to the corresponding metal prong that the RCA cables attach to. This was my eureka moment, and I was actually really proud of myself for narrowing it down this far. I tested continuity between each end of the cable and once again, everything tested fine except for the right positive.
I’ve wiggled each side of the right positive hoping to get some kind of signal to no avail. I detached the red positive wire from the plastic clip, hoping that it was just failing to make contact, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, as even when I hold the multimeter prongs to the bare wire there is no continuity.
Here’s where I’m even more confused (and will probably be lambasted…): in an effort to better determine where the break along the path is, I stuck a safety pin into the RCA cable and then tried to test continuity on each side of the safety pin in hopes of seeing which end of the cable has a break. Interestingly, both sides showed continuity!
At this point I’m truly stuck. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I’m just worried about doing some kind of irreparable damage to the turntable by continuing to tinker with it.
Thanks in advance.
I was handed down a Pioneer PL-30 from my father and I’m pretty enamored with it - I’d really like to make it my primary turntable going forward. Cosmetically, it looks fantastic, but it had several of what appear to be the standard issues at its age: unresponsive controls, erratic speed, pitch control issues, dead right channel, etc. The switches and knobs would actually crunch when I manipulated them! This unit had been stored in the open in a dirty, dusty basement for literally decades, unused.
I’m happy to report that after opening it up and cleaning most of the switches and potentiometers with Deoxit D5 and Fader F4, it appears that most of the issues have been resolved. The one lingering issue is the dead (or more accurately, incredibly muted) right channel. If I turn the balance on the receiver all the way to the right and turn up the volume, I can hear a slight whisper of audio coming through, but barely anything. When I put the receiver on mono rather than stereo, it works just fine. This is not an issue with the receiver, as I have other turntables and components that work perfectly well when hooked up.
I have a multimeter and have essentially started to learn how to use it a little bit by trying to figure out the issue here. I’ve tested continuity all the way from the headshell to the RCA jack that inputs into the receiver. The left channel (both positive and ground) are good all the way through, and the right channel (ground only) seems to be good all the way through as well. This obviously leads me to believe that there is a break somewhere along the right positive.
The side of the RCA cables that go into the turntable itself are housed in a plastic clip, that then clips onto a series of metal prongs which are connected to the board on the bottom of the tonearm. I again get continuity all the way from the right positive tonearm spring pin to the corresponding metal prong that the RCA cables attach to. This was my eureka moment, and I was actually really proud of myself for narrowing it down this far. I tested continuity between each end of the cable and once again, everything tested fine except for the right positive.
I’ve wiggled each side of the right positive hoping to get some kind of signal to no avail. I detached the red positive wire from the plastic clip, hoping that it was just failing to make contact, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, as even when I hold the multimeter prongs to the bare wire there is no continuity.
Here’s where I’m even more confused (and will probably be lambasted…): in an effort to better determine where the break along the path is, I stuck a safety pin into the RCA cable and then tried to test continuity on each side of the safety pin in hopes of seeing which end of the cable has a break. Interestingly, both sides showed continuity!
At this point I’m truly stuck. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. I’m just worried about doing some kind of irreparable damage to the turntable by continuing to tinker with it.
Thanks in advance.
