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AR XA soldering mess up. Humming through the roof

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DijonMaster

Active Member
Long story short, I added RCA jacks to my AR XA. It was fine, but the ground wasn't long enough and seemed to be interfering with the suspension because it was so tight. I unsoldered it and added a new ground, which is pretty much just speaker wire crimped together. It's large, so it's somewhat hard to solder on correctly (hence, the solder being messy. but it should be fine?).

But it isn't fine. It worked at first, but stepping anywhere near the turntable caused it to flutter and then to buzz. Now it's buzzing non stop. I've tried resoldering but I can't figure out how to fix it.

The ground is attached to the t bar and the frame screw.
 

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Yes, it’s a mess but I’m sorry to say I can’t see it well enough to diagnose the problem. The speaker wire is much too stiff for that application. Get some finer wire and start over, step by step. It doesn’t need to be as flexible as the tonearm wire but somewhere in between should be good. Step by step.
 
Blackdog61 said:
Yes, it’s a mess but I’m sorry to say I can’t see it well enough to diagnose the problem. The speaker wire is much too stiff for that application. Get some finer wire and start over, step by step. It doesn’t need to be as flexible as the tonearm wire but somewhere in between should be good. Step by step.
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Thank you! Sorry, I'm very new to the world of soldering (don't ask me why I chose this as my first venture). I really appreciate your help on my other posts so far!!
 
Do you have those soldered together…?

they shouldn’t share any signal…plus you want insulation on them…you may have created some sort of ground loop
 
Bkphoto said:
Do you have those soldered together…?

they shouldn’t share any signal…plus you want insulation on them…you may have created some sort of ground loop
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I soldered the ground wire, the left ground and the tonearm ground to the left ground post. Was I not supposed to?

And the ground wire is insulated
 
I agree with the above. I would start over with some appropriate wire. What are you using for the ground out of the arm pivot block? The original braid? When I rewire an AR table I also sum the grounds at the wire tree if it is still in place. Looks like you bypassed that in the rewire.
 
StuartB said:
I agree with the above. I would start over with some appropriate wire. What are you using for the ground out of the arm pivot block? The original braid? When I rewire an AR table I also sum the grounds at the wire tree if it is still in place. Looks like you bypassed that in the rewire.
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I'm using the original braid since I didn't rewire the arm. Which is the wire tree?
 
DijonMaster said:
Which is the wire tree?
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On the original AR tables, there was a simple wire tree attached to the inside of the wood plinth. It was the way to connect the tone arm wires to the wires that would go to the RCA jacks. One side connected to the tone arm, the other side connected to the RCA outputs. It was simple and effective, and it prevented a tug on the original RCA wires to damage the wires running out of the tone arm. It also made it easy to sum the grounds across the whole wiring harness. I don't have one here right now or I would shoot a picture for you.
 
It’s possible the arm needs to be rewired. FWIW, I didn’t use the tree because it didn’t occur to me. I simply ran the wires from the headshell end straight through to the RCAs.

Mustard expert, it might be a worthwhile expense to just have someone fix it for you and redo the bearings in the process. That arm and table can be very good.
 
Not trying to scold in anyway, but watch a couple video's. Wire should be tinned prior to soldering.
 
StuartB said:
On the original AR tables, there was a simple wire tree attached to the inside of the wood plinth. It was the way to connect the tone arm wires to the wires that would go to the RCA jacks. One side connected to the tone arm, the other side connected to the RCA outputs. It was simple and effective, and it prevented a tug on the original RCA wires to damage the wires running out of the tone arm. It also made it easy to sum the grounds across the whole wiring harness. I don't have one here right now or I would shoot a picture for you.
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So I have that, but it's in pretty rough shape. But I actually managed to fix it all!! I found some thin braided copper cable and wired that as the ground and it seems to be working perfectly.

Thank you all for your help.
 
DijonMaster said:
But I actually managed to fix it all!! I found some thin braided copper cable and wired that as the ground and it seems to be working perfectly.

Thank you all for your help.
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Glad you got it sorted out. Groud issues can be infuriating, but it usually ends up being a pretty simple fix. Enjoy.
 
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