villerat01
Active Member
I just picked up a Bic 980 TT at a gw for 15. The table looks great and is in Ex shape, except the platter dont spin..The motor is spinning and the belt is moving but not the platter, I guess it is stuck. Any suggestions?
Bic Turntable
- Thread starter villerat01
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Do NOT force it whatever you do. You'll separate the bearing from the base and then it'll be really hosed.
Do a search here. THis is a common issue with old BICs. You should be able to use heat and/or penetrating oil to loosen the platter from the bearing.
Edit: Here ya go: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=139136
Tuco
Aces And Eights
common problem for the 900 series, easy fix, more info here,
http://www.helioza.com/Directory/Recreation/Audio/Fix-A-Stuck-BIC-960-Turntable-1.php
http://www.helioza.com/Directory/Recreation/Audio/Fix-A-Stuck-BIC-960-Turntable-1.php
Bic980
What ever you do, do not rotate the platter. Use heat or penetrating oil and then pry straight up. Once everything is cleaned and lubed you will have an outstanding if not way underated TT. I have the standards-Technics SL-D2, SL-23, AR XA, Dual 1219, Dual 1019, Realistic Elac Miracord 40C, Realistic Lab 420 plus a stack of other TT's, all of which are very respectable TT's but my lowly Bic 940 & 960 are by far my favorites. They are a flawless record changer and an awsome manual TT. Both of mine had stuck platters at first but with patience and a little elbow grease you'll have something there that I believe will rival TT's that cost several times what the Bics go for. Bics are so underated that they go for so cheap, which is great for us AKers because most of us know what a fantastice underdog that were getting. Good luck, Mark:thmbsp:
What ever you do, do not rotate the platter. Use heat or penetrating oil and then pry straight up. Once everything is cleaned and lubed you will have an outstanding if not way underated TT. I have the standards-Technics SL-D2, SL-23, AR XA, Dual 1219, Dual 1019, Realistic Elac Miracord 40C, Realistic Lab 420 plus a stack of other TT's, all of which are very respectable TT's but my lowly Bic 940 & 960 are by far my favorites. They are a flawless record changer and an awsome manual TT. Both of mine had stuck platters at first but with patience and a little elbow grease you'll have something there that I believe will rival TT's that cost several times what the Bics go for. Bics are so underated that they go for so cheap, which is great for us AKers because most of us know what a fantastice underdog that were getting. Good luck, Mark:thmbsp:
Fast_Eddie
Upper-middle fi
You'll have a nice table once you fix it.
golfchance
New Member
Hi there. I just picked up a free BIC 960, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what the sliding switch is on the headshell. It's got two positions, marked "M" and "A".
Thanks!
interalian
Super Member
AAA3330
Super Member
The Bic isn't bad for a changer. I bought mine mostly for stacking 45's. The stacker adapter for 45's is kind of hard to find. I am actually using it more for stacking 2 or 3 less valued Lp's and setting the sleep timer on my receiver. For single play, I still like my other turntables better though.
eb2jim
Super Member
A well-lubed and set up 980 is pretty dang good stuff. I love mine, and got it at a garage sale a few years back for $20. I have used the lp and 45 stacker spindles, but mostly used it for single play manual. I found it to be just great sounding. I dumped my Thorens and kept that.
pioneervato
Lunatic Member
My first ever TT was the BIC 980. I gave it to my brother when I upgraded to the BIC 1000, which I still have. Simple and pretty darn good performers.
I still have the original owner's manual for the 980 that I have scanned and converted to pdf. If you are interested, PM me with your email address and I will send you the pdf.
I still have the original owner's manual for the 980 that I have scanned and converted to pdf. If you are interested, PM me with your email address and I will send you the pdf.
I'm doing the same!
KentTeffeteller
Gimpus Stereophilus!
And best of all, this BIC was made in the good old USA. Michigan to be exact. The design came from the Voice Of Music company. These were short lived regrettably. The 900 series are excellent changers. They had many issues when new but once repaired were very reliable. It was mostly little things like motors occasionally not being lubricated, backwards wiring, and other little things. Our dealer in Oak Ridge, TN when these were new unpacked them and mounted a cartridge and thoroughly checked them before one was sold. If any issues were noted, they were repaired. The 1000 series were also very fine and then the quality went downhill and they became more plasticky. These fine models date from 1977-1979.
Doug G.
Lunatic Member
Yes, unfortunately, about the same time the 900 series was released, the Japanese "monolith" type turntables hit the market and became all the rage.
BIC then felt, in order to keep up in this market, the need to redesign their turntables to look like the Japanese units.
Hence came the "VIA" series which had a plastic housing over the same basic mechanism and an adjustable suspension to tune the table to the environment by varying the stiffness of the support system. It actually works pretty well but then the table was very difficult to diasassemble for maintenance/repair.
An effort was made to simplify the tables for disassembly with the "Z" series which eliminated the "VIA" (Variable Isolation Adjustment) feature but still had the same basic mechanism which was OK except that the plastic housing without the VIA added a lot of resonance and the bass became rather bloated and they were more susceptible to environmental influences.
Some of the higher end VIA and Z tables were very sophisticated for the day with digital speed control and readout and electronic control over other operations but the quality control problems (which, I feel, have been a little overstated through the years) and initial loss of market share after the sensation of the 900 series resulted in loss of sales from which BIC could not recover.
Doug
BIC then felt, in order to keep up in this market, the need to redesign their turntables to look like the Japanese units.
Hence came the "VIA" series which had a plastic housing over the same basic mechanism and an adjustable suspension to tune the table to the environment by varying the stiffness of the support system. It actually works pretty well but then the table was very difficult to diasassemble for maintenance/repair.
An effort was made to simplify the tables for disassembly with the "Z" series which eliminated the "VIA" (Variable Isolation Adjustment) feature but still had the same basic mechanism which was OK except that the plastic housing without the VIA added a lot of resonance and the bass became rather bloated and they were more susceptible to environmental influences.
Some of the higher end VIA and Z tables were very sophisticated for the day with digital speed control and readout and electronic control over other operations but the quality control problems (which, I feel, have been a little overstated through the years) and initial loss of market share after the sensation of the 900 series resulted in loss of sales from which BIC could not recover.
Doug
Thanks!
Man, I'm really glad that this thread came up when it did! A co-worker just gave me his BIC 980 to fix for him (it's been in storage for years) and the platter is locked up tight. If the OP hadn't asked this question and received such great advice from you guys I would've tried to free that platter up by turning it and ruined it for sure. Thanks for this timely thread - it's great advice like this and helpful people like you all that make AK such a great and worthwhile site!:thmbsp:
BTW - the BIC 960 was my first good turntable back in '78 - it was a great table and I agree that they are underappreciated.:yes:
Man, I'm really glad that this thread came up when it did! A co-worker just gave me his BIC 980 to fix for him (it's been in storage for years) and the platter is locked up tight. If the OP hadn't asked this question and received such great advice from you guys I would've tried to free that platter up by turning it and ruined it for sure. Thanks for this timely thread - it's great advice like this and helpful people like you all that make AK such a great and worthwhile site!:thmbsp:
BTW - the BIC 960 was my first good turntable back in '78 - it was a great table and I agree that they are underappreciated.:yes:
