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Mitsubishi LT30 Tonearm won’t drop

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Dayton77

New Member
Hello, I recently acquired a wonderful LT30. I have already replaced the tonearm belts, and at first that seemed to be the only issue, I played 3 records on it and it sounded great. When I went to put a fourth, the tonearm wouldn’t set down. I will attach a video demonstrating the behavior, but it basically lifts and moves over to the record, but never sets down and just continues down the track endlessly. I can’t even set it down manually with the cue buttons. I have checked and the sensors can tell if there’s a 33 or 44 on the plate, i used an opaque black record, and the bulbs seem to be lit through the quartz, so I have no idea what the issue is. Any ideas?

Video Link : https://kapwi.ng/c/uQoE5JgVlR
 
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Mine is doing the exact same thing. I think the lifter mechanism is gummed up but I'm not sure trying to loosen it up with oil. Did you try using the lowering button and manually lowering the tone arm?
 
Yeah my lowering mechanism is working just fine, and the major issue seems to be the tonearm not halting at the edge of the record more than the lowering. Idk either way it’s super weird.
 
coneyboy said:
Mine is doing the exact same thing. I think the lifter mechanism is gummed up but I'm not sure trying to loosen it up with oil. Did you try using the lowering button and manually lowering the tone arm?
Click to expand...
Another heads up. I just put a little WD-40 into the area of the arm lifter comes up out of and sent my tracking up to about seven or eight grams and just continue to work the motor up and down and it loosened up and works fine now. Hope that helps you
 
coneyboy said:
Another heads up. I just put a little WD-40 into the area of the arm lifter comes up out of and sent my tracking up to about seven or eight grams and just continue to work the motor up and down and it loosened up and works fine now. Hope that helps you
Click to expand...
Sounds about right.
Light machine oil in a needle applicator should work.
 
coneyboy said:
Another heads up. I just put a little WD-40 into the area of the arm lifter comes up out of and sent my tracking up to about seven or eight grams and just continue to work the motor up and down and it loosened up and works fine now. Hope that helps you
Click to expand...


What do you mean that you sent the tracking up about 7 or 8 grams?
 
Dayton77 said:
Hello, I recently acquired a wonderful LT30. I have already replaced the tonearm belts, and at first that seemed to be the only issue, I played 3 records on it and it sounded great. When I went to put a fourth, the tonearm wouldn’t set down. I will attach a video demonstrating the behavior, but it basically lifts and moves over to the record, but never sets down and just continues down the track endlessly. I can’t even set it down manually with the cue buttons. I have checked and the sensors can tell if there’s a 33 or 44 on the plate, i used an opaque black record, and the bulbs seem to be lit through the quartz, so I have no idea what the issue is. Any ideas?

Video Link : https://kapwi.ng/c/uQoE5JgVlR
Click to expand...
The service manual is available https://www.vinylengine.com/library/mitsubishi/lt-30.shtml

You'll have to register with the site to download it. I won't try to troubleshoot from the hip, but there are a number of sensors that need to be checked.
 
coneyboy said:
Another heads up. I just put a little WD-40 into the area of the arm lifter comes up out of and sent my tracking up to about seven or eight grams and just continue to work the motor up and down and it loosened up and works fine now. Hope that helps you
Click to expand...


did yours lower the tonearm when it returned to the tonearm lock before you made that alteration? Because mine will, which is why i’m not certain the issue has to do with it lowering.
 
There is a belt INSIDE the back end of the tonearm assembly. It's attached to 2 pulleys . These pulleys raise and lower the tonearm per command.
Either the belt has broken into little bits . like the one I'm working on or, it's to gummy,black hell and stuck around the pulleys. Like the belt issue below.

The motor/belt agenda also drives the tonearm assembly left and right. Right now I've put on an SM5.1 square belt.

I number of TT part places have these belts in stock. The linear drive motor/belt is easy to change. The Tonearm ...NOT
 
See this assembly? That needs to be partially disassembled . The 2 screws holding the 3 lamp piece = out
The black , funky T stop arm = out . Then the two screws holding the flat metal plate ( that the lamps shine through) , take those out They have washers under them , dont loose. Next : a 1.5 mm allen wrench to undo the nuts that bind the chrome slide rod. After that ; slide that chrome rod to the extreme other side of the unit . They have a cutout in the base just for that. That should free up the tonearm assembly from below. be VERY careful with the wires going into the arm assembly
Up top , there are 2 L-shaped brackets on the rear of the tonearm assembly. those are philips head , flat . Remove those and also the L brackets. Pull the tonearm assembly diagonally up and out , towards the rear of the TT.
There's not a hell of a lot of working space with that but , you can see the motor and the pulleys. I bought my belt from Ebay but other vendors have it too. You can get a two belt kit while you're at it because the linear tracking motor needs one too.
 

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I put some light machine oil on the motor shaft at the bearings and lubed other points, including the pillar and lift guides.
 
I know you probably tried the first record already, but mine did that when I tried a semi translucent record. It didn't seem like it was until I put a flashlight up to it.
 
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