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pioneer pl-88f tonearm not moving?

T

TrevorBarten

Well-Known Member
I have this drawer style pioneer record player which I cleaned and replaced the belts on. The drawer opens just fine and the if I press the manual switch the platter starts spinning for a bit. However, the tonearm does not move at all. I checked and the motor does not spin. The belt is a bit tight, but even if I take off the belt it still doesn't spin. I cleaned the three micro switches in the arm mechanism and they seem to work fine when measuring. I currently have it in the stop position which means that the arm is stuck in the arm rest position and the gear is pressing down on the press style micro switch. The only thing I think is not working is the size and record detection light. The only light that I can even find is one close to the front (see picture).47fa52f9-8a86-411c-ae22-f353c90cb69f.jpg
Which does not light up. If I look at videos showing the record player in function some of the examples shown also do not have a working light and yet they still seem to be functional. Does it make sense that the arm doesn't move at all if it thinks there is no record on the platter? I am used to full auto record players having the arm move to the middle before moving back to the start if there is no record, or atleast move a little. Anyone with a pl-88, or experience with one, who can give me some advice?
 
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Also wanted to mention that the stop light immediately turns off if pressed, which seems to indicate that it does recognize that it's in the stop position, though that would presumably be detected using the micro switches and not any light sensor, right?
 
I just did some more troubleshooting and I think the motor for the tonearm might just be defective? Unless it's an ac motor. If it is dc it does not move at all even using a bench power supply. If it is not ac I am back to square one. Any tips on how I should confirm this?
 
I just restored one of these and I had the same problems you did. The interior lamp is just burned out but it doesn't affect operation. It is just an 8V axial lamp easily replaced. What I think your problem with the functionality might be is what happened to mine. On mine, after disassembling everything to get to the belts, when I put it back together I din't align the black plastic pivoting piece on the left side of the drawer drive mechanism. It LOOKED like everything was right but I noticed when closed, the drawer was sticking out just a little. It wasn't flush with the front panel and the clear plastic window was tilted ever so slightly. I finally realized it wasn't closing 100% and wasn't contacting the rear microswitch that tells the CPU that the drawer is fully closed. So nothing worked except manual mode when the drawer was fully extended. Careful analysis of why it wasn't closing fully showed me I had not aligned that plastic piece. Once I did that, everything started working correctly in full auto and even the track search worked.
 
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