So I picked up a Panasonic SL-H401 on Facebook Marketplace, and it's MOSTLY great. When I got it home, I cleaned it up, including opening it up and gaving the switches a few shots of contact cleaner spray. I hooked it up to test it out, and it sounds great. Almost everything is working properly - it had no problem holding at 33 1/3 and 45 RPM, it has a solid Empire 2000-series cart, and auto-return is working properly.
The one thing that's not working: Auto-start. When I hit the start button, the tonearm raises and the platter starts to turn, but instead of moving towards the platter, the tonearm tries to move AWAY from the platter. It pushes against the clamp, meets resistance from the clamp, stops, and then lowers and the platter stops spinning. You can see video of this here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yRQ6mRcrXcLnGtgY9
This is my first fully automatic, so I'm not familiar with the mechanisms for this. Any thoughts on what would cause this, and if this is something I can fix?
The one thing that's not working: Auto-start. When I hit the start button, the tonearm raises and the platter starts to turn, but instead of moving towards the platter, the tonearm tries to move AWAY from the platter. It pushes against the clamp, meets resistance from the clamp, stops, and then lowers and the platter stops spinning. You can see video of this here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/yRQ6mRcrXcLnGtgY9
This is my first fully automatic, so I'm not familiar with the mechanisms for this. Any thoughts on what would cause this, and if this is something I can fix?