Grandpa's Setup "restoration"

[gabfont]

After quite a while studying the audio world after my grandfather gave me his old setup, i feel that i have the minimal info required to try this project out. Yes, I know it would be easier and probably smarter to pay someone who does this for a living, but I havent found in my city someone with that expertise that was willing to do the job. At least no one tha inspired confidence. Since sending it abroad or even to a different state would be out of reach for me, the only option available is to use my architect/woodworker knowledge to do it by myself.

Having that said, Im here asking for the help of this community, where I already learned a lot from, to not mess up with such a nice piece of audio history I have in my hands. It was a complete setup, but the Fisher tube amp was given away a few years ago, leaving me with:

_Garrard 301 Oil Bearing on a plinth with the original springs
_GE TM-2G Tonearm with GE VR22 stereo cartridge (no ideia wich stylus)
_Altec 602b Duplex with original crossover on custom made cabinets

There was also a Reel to Reel and all sorts of spare parts like stylus and tubes but i didnt know better at the time and it all went to the trash can. Still regret it haha

I'll post a couple o photos of how i found them ate the end of the post, dont know if videos are suported but i'll try that as well. The condition: this gear has never seen a bad use, my grandpa is a very strong character, only in his presence it could be played. It main use was to play music at really low levels during social reunions at his place. It has been stored away and not played for over 20 years.

Finally, the questions! Despite the tonearm beeing a little rusty, i havent found any major problem (besides the hole i did when trying to clean one of the Altecs and i'll never forget that ahah). When i turn off the tt theres a spark on the switch but i dont knw if that was not supposed to happen. It runs smooth, it stops smooth, when the plate is on theres not even a small noise (at least for my non trained ears), theres no rust on the linkages as well. Besides some oiling, what can i do to check for other problems? The main issue with it is the speed knob, it doesnt change, although the mecanism when manually changed from underneath works fine, problably a problem at the knob nuts. Any ideas on how to handle with the tonearm rust as well??

Sorry for the long text and misspelling, i did my best to resume it al!!
Gabriel

 

[gabfont]

photos are on

 

[Refugee]

Wow! great gear. Take good care of it.
Idler wheel looks to be in good shape on the Gerrard. If you have any wow or flutter those idler wheels can be had. I can't remember where I got one for a 45 changer I repaired but I do remember that they would only send the refurbished one to me after I sent my original to them. It took about 2 weeks total.
The Altecs are really nice! Great imaging from speakers like this with the whole source coming from one point in space.
There is no picture of the hole in the Altec but if it is small it can be fixed - elmers glue and very light tracing paper in layers.
As far as the rust on the tonearm there is a product called Quick-Glo that works really well.
I am not sure about the spark at the switch - you will have to wait for someone that has one of these units for advise on that.

Good luck! Please post follow up pics and let us know what worked and what did not.

 

[elnaldo]

A spark at a switch doesn't look like a normal behavior in such small device. I'd clean the contacts inside the switch (if possible), and add a small capacitor across the switch, (search for "spark killer capacitor"), a 0.1 or 0.047uF "X2" capacitor (rated for AC) will work, or a 2KV ceramic capacitor.