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Fixing Technics SL-D303 ... broke it?

breadboard

New Member
So I grab a Technics SL-D303 from eBay listed as 'for parts', I receive turntable beautifully packaged but it feels... gummy. Everything moves slowly. Worse: I press the auto start and it brings the tonearm in way below clearance, and then, when I press stop, causes a massive scratch across my reference album.

and I take that personally.

I take it apart and there's black gunk all in the inside, and what looks like earwax all over the thing. I use isopropyl and clean all that out. I turn the machine, and it moves nicely. I experience joy!

This does not last. The arm still does not come in properly. I take the platter off and find more earwax near the disc size sensor. I clean this out. I put platter back on. it works! except there's a loud clicking now at the start and end of the engagement of the turntable. I experience sadness.

I'm assuming this won't hurt the thing, but the little protruding plastic popping up and hitting the disc a bunch can't be good, right? it makes this odd click now both at the start and end of playing a record, feels like maybe it should happen once and end, yes?
 
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also, the strobe just never turns off, but maybe that's intentional? when I got it it did this thing where as long as the power was on the platter would spin, but the clean out seems to have fixed that. much appreciation for any help or guidance on anything here.
 
secondarily; with the headshell off and anti-skate to zero/power off, it still bounces back to the resting position. I've seen various things say this is a problem, but it seems to work fine. after the second clean it did rest without returning, at this point it bounces back. should I be concerned?
 
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