I thought I would share an update. First, a big thanks to Montycat and Outsider373 for the great reference materials.
I ended up purchasing two 1219’s. The first looked gently used, if at all, with the original plastic film still on the platter, all the original manuals, registration card with matching serial, and even an unopened cartridge mounting parts bag. The only missing item was the single play spindle. This was also a deck only with no included plinth or cover. The second one was mainly for spare parts, plinth, cover, and possible use in a second room.
I started with the Parts table for practice. I wasn’t optimistic because the seller did not put two of the three shipping screws in the shipping position. Needless to say, there was some rattling around in the box and some damage to the plinth mounting plate. The platter spindle and bearing were loose, the platter was partially out of place, the removable strobe disc was bent. Fortunately, no damage noted on the tonearm.
I performed a full overhaul using the Dual Service for Amateurs guide including the cueing piston. Speed selector was frozen and serviced very well. The motor halves were very difficult to separate. I even bent my retaining ring pliers in the process. Ultimately ended up using two paint can opener tools outward facing back to back as a make shift set of reverse pliers. This actually worked much better than I thought and got the job done!
I wasn’t happy with the platter bearing performance. I took it apart again and polished both bearing plates to a mirror finish. That helped reduce noise significantly.
The steuerpimpel looked like OEM and still in good shape. I know the recommendation is to not put any grease on the tonearm lever so I left it dry. The table creaks a lot during startup as the steuerpimpel engages and makes me think it will wear prematurely.
My only issue was the cartridge height with cueing lever up. I just couldn’t get enough height. The adjustment screw behind the tonearm was set for maximum arm height. The cueing arm mechanism looked good with all clearances acceptable per service manual.
As far as I can tell, there may be a slight downward arc in the tonearm as it exits the gimbal. The tonearm was locked during shipment and there are no dents so I don’t think this occurred during shipping. I’m not ready to contemplate a tonearm tear down and straightening so I added a couple layers of aluminum tape under the tonearm flange where the cueing piston engages. This added enough height at the cartridge to make me feel comfortable.
I did have to make a few other minor adjustments. One to get the motor to stop properly at the end of cycle. Another to get it to start properly n manual mode.
Time of truth. The motor and platter in this are amazingly quiet. I don’t have a fluorescent light for the strobe disc so I resorted to a Phone app. Got the speed to 33.34 +- 0.13% with a WOW of 0.05% RMS. Player stop time after motor turns off is two minutes. Not bad for a parts purchase.
My setup produced more hum using a ground cable between table and pre than it did when not using a ground. Looks like the factory wiring has the ground bonded to the right channel which was working well in my case.
I’m a fan of the AT microlines so I’m using an AT-VMN740ML. I was worried about too low resonance based on the 12g effective tonearm mass for the 1219 and compliance of 23 for the cart. Calculated resonance was 7Hz. I’m pleased to say the actual measured resonance is between 9 and 10Hz.
All in all, I’m more than satisfied with the performance of the parts table. Now it’s time to work on the good table.
