Repair the AR XA dampening system?

[DijonMaster]

I recently found an AR XA table in pretty decent shape at my local Salvation Army. This is my first record player ever and I'm super excited. I would really love to repair the dampening system, since I saw a YouTube video of it working and it looked awesome.

I know I could just pull out the pin and it'd be easier, but I like cool things. I've cleaned the bearings, the brass barrel, lubed it with machine oil and added a new foam washer to the spindle, but the arm seems to kind of just get stuck. It doesn't lower smoothly, but will just hang in a certain position which makes it really hard to determine tracking weight.

I saw someone say that you need to fill the brass barrel with 300,000 cst lube, but I can't actually figure out where to fill it? Do I take out the plastic pieces and fill it there? Any other suggestions?

 

[Nashou66]

here ya go

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntab...t=113135&sid=d6b2f6bb33b1d8039b1cdaf111b33ad5

Nashou

 

[DijonMaster]

here ya go

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntab...t=113135&sid=d6b2f6bb33b1d8039b1cdaf111b33ad5

Nashou

Sorry, I'm pretty new to this and am trying to understand exactly what he did. He used 500k CST lube on the horizontal arm post (the arm well?) and in the bearing holes? Or did he mean that you cover the brass barrel with it

 

[gkimeng]

The brass barrel. There should be NO damping in the arm post or the vertical pivot pins. Only in the barrel.

 

[DijonMaster]

The brass barrel. There should be NO damping in the arm post or the vertical pivot pins. Only in the barrel.

Thank you!

 

[WaynerN]

Do this instead.

 

[mkane]

Slots

 

[DijonMaster]

Do this instead.

View attachment 2848023

That looks cool! I'd do that for the tonearm rest though, not the dampening, right?

 

[WaynerN]

That looks cool! I'd do that for the tonearm rest though, not the dampening, right?

The rest is from a Technics table, It locks. The walnut piece prevents the stylus from dropping to the plinth.

 

[DijonMaster]

The rest is from a Technics table, It locks. The walnut piece prevents the stylus from dropping to the plinth.

Time to relearn my childhood woodworking skills