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Ar-Xa tonearm rebuild

My suggestion - while you have it apart change the arm tube from the stock AR tube to a Technics arm tube. The collar and solder points are easier to work on. You can upgrade the wire to something equally good, but easier to work with. You can then use any standard SME style headshell, and you will have more flexibility in aligning your cartridge with most headshells. Several of us can offer more into if desired.
 
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mef38 said:
I am running afoul of mt AR\XA. I have tried to rewire the tonearm and.... I'm about to give up. If you have experience with AR\XA tonearm rewiring, reach out to me before I dump this and go back to Thorens. :p Seriuosly though, The litz tonearm wire is so hard to solder. And I'm wearing the plastic tonearm terminal block, and my patience, thin. Everything else on the refurbishment is going swimmingly. I just need to finish this part. Suggestions welcome. (and I do have a local river to throw it into.)
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Try reaching out to @StuartB. He's done a number of AR XA tonearms using Marc's method. I have a number of Technics tone arms available if you are looking to go to SME head shell
 
I’ve been using the technics wand and new bearings for over 20 years, had to find an alternative when headshells became scarce back in the 2000’s. I like the Cardas wire over most other wire in this application.
 
Hose53 said:
Try reaching out to @StuartB. He's done a number of AR XA tonearms using Marc's method. I have a number of Technics tone arms available if you are looking to go to SME head shell
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I like the idea of replacing the arm tube but my goal with this turntable was to keep it as authentic/original as possible. I'm using Cardas Litz 33 awg wire. Very hard to solder. But, now that I've soldered, unsoldered and resoldered so many times that the plastic terminal block is worrying me, I may have to throw in the towel and change the arm tube. One more trial tomorrow and then I change the tube. :p
 
mef38 said:
I like the idea of replacing the arm tube but my goal with this turntable was to keep it as authentic/original as possible. I'm using Cardas Litz 33 awg wire. Very hard to solder. But, now that I've soldered, unsoldered and resoldered so many times that the plastic terminal block is worrying me, I may have to throw in the towel and change the arm tube. One more trial tomorrow and then I change the tube. :p
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Are you using a heatsink on the terminals to prevent melting in the terminal block? Something like this, not an alligator clip.
 

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I don't know how much demand there is, but it seems like one of the enterprising sellers on ebay selling aftermarket AR parts could injection mold or 3D-print new tonearm collars terminal blocks.
 
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The collar is fine. The plastic terminal block, not so much. But it is not beyond repair. I can still use it. I am holding it in place with the alligator clips on my third-hand tool. It ma y be a good idea to set up some type of heatsink.

I may reach out to @Hose53 for information about his arm tubes.

I'll keep you posted.


Mark
 
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