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Dual 1246 Anti-Resonant Counterweight

Fernando

Fernando

Active Member
Does anyone know how to fix a Dual anti-resonant counterweight of the 1246, 704, 721 vintage? I have one from a 1246 with a metal weight that no longer floats, but rests on the plastic housing. I've tried the rear adjustment screw, dis-assembly and re-assembly but nothing seems to work. The manuals have no diagrams or assembly instructions. Later weights have setup instructions and setup curves but these early versions have little or no documentation.

Fernando
 
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When the spring steel supporting strap snaps, you're toast. On the 701, you can install a screw through the back of the cage and grab the inner weight. Not sure of the size, but it is metric. That, or get a normal style counterbalance. This is one case where Dual over engineered itself for it's own good.
 
It was a clever -- perhaps even brilliant -- design, but sadly the suspension on the counter-oscillator does something break. You can cinch it down as bohhey advises, but you do lose your anti-resonance effect.

Fred Longworth
 
I have repaired a bunch of the floating Dual 701 counterweights. You need to replace the broken spring with a tiny piece from a gutted tape ruler. Use the return spring, not the ruler tape.

Seth
Forever Analog
 
Very good thought on Seth's repair, but in all honesty - who at Dual thought that these would still be playing 30 plus years later? That doesn't sell many turntables.
 
I was afraid you guys would say it was hopeless. My 510 seems to have an early version of the dual resonator but it is not advertised as such. It seems the technical people were a year or 2 ahead of the marketing folks. That one seems to work fine. I had been hoping to use the one from the 1246 as a tweak on my old 1229. The 1229 remains spread all over the dining room table waiting for South Street to decide to deliver the grommet for the tone arm raise/lower mechanism. The only sound I get out of it right now comes from the wife's static. I bought it while in college in 1973. It still looks great.

Fernando
 
I may be wrong, but isn't the diameter of the 1246 tonearm tube smaller than the 1229's? In addition, why re-engineer the 1229? I think that the Dual engineers did a pretty good job as it was. And, it has been reported on this forum earlier that South Street Service will not be getting any more of those guides. Contact of Adam there to confirm - I don't want to speak for him.
 
The 1246 has the same diameter arm. The 1264 later went to the smaller ULM tube.

From what I read here, the part in short supply was the little white guide for the arm movement mechanism. I did get one of them. What I need is the grommet that retains the 2 little metal balls on the tube for the single/multi selector. As far as I know that still exists and South Street said they sent it. It seems to be in a post office do loop.

Fernando
 
Fernando, you can trim an ordinary store-bought (Home Depot) grommet with a pair of diagonal cutters, and it will work perfectly well as the "rubber spring" for the detent in the single/multi assembly. Make sure you clean off the shaft as much as possible. Sometimes it is sticky with old grease. I relube with Teflon lube.

On the 1229, don't forget to clean out the sticky grease on the shaft and bearing inside the speed selector.

Best,

Fred Longworth
 
Do you just trim the excess diameter from the grommet?

It looks like the manual calls for a drop of viscostatic 10W-30 applied from the top on that shaft. Mine looks relatively clean.

My entire speed adjust assembly needs cleaning and a lube. I can't get the idler to fully spring back to the top after I adjust it down.

Fernando
 
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