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SME 3009 Improved Tone Arm. Can someone please explain this to me?

kaplang

kaplang

Works for me !
The rider weight of my SME 3009 tonearm has a hole in the side that houses a spring and plunger. I suppose it is meant to hold the setting for the rider weight but the spring and plunger in mine are so loose in the hole they fall out if the weight is turned over. Is this normal or do I need to do something?

Thanks

from the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna
"it's always something—if it ain't one thing, it's another."
 

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The hole that the spring and plunger are installed in passes through the hole that the weight mounts on to a blind side. Hold the spring/plunger in that blind side with a toothpick or something similar while sliding the weight on to its shaft.

My experience is with an earlier 3009 unimproved. I'm making an assumption that this is the same.

Caution: They do like to fly away while doing this.
 
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12ax7 said:
The hole that the spring and plunger are installed in pass through the hole that the weight mounts on to a blind side. Hold the spring/plunger in that blind side with a toothpick or something similar while sliding the weight on to it's shaft.

My experience is with an earlier 3009 unimproved. I'm making an assumption that this is the same.

Caution: They do like to fly away while doing this.
Click to expand...

As long as I have had the turntable with the 3009 the weight has not been on correctly. I just never noticed till yesterday as I was installing and setting up a new cartridge. No literature I found on line explained what you did. Now thanks to you Gary it is perfect. I really appreciate the input.

Cheers!
George
 
The idea with the spring/plunger setup is that -- when it's working correctly -- rotating the weight moves it forwards (counter-clockwise) or backwards (clockwise) in regular increments (one mark on the little post).
 
bangsezmax said:
The idea with the spring/plunger setup is that -- when it's working correctly -- rotating the weight moves it forwards (counter-clockwise) or backwards (clockwise) in regular increments (one mark on the little post).
Click to expand...
The spring and plunger allows the weight to SLIDE on the shaft to move up and back to for the proper setting. The spring pushes the plunger against the shaft that is flat on the bottom so it does not move on its own.
 
kaplang said:
That is the setting showing in the 3009 owners manual for a 1.5g tracking force. It is the manual found on the Vinyl Engine site for my model Tonearm.
Click to expand...

Since the settings only go up 1.5 grams on the improved, you are correct.
 
kaplang said:
The spring and plunger allows the weight to SLIDE on the shaft to move up and back to for the proper setting. The spring pushes the plunger against the shaft that is flat on the bottom so it does not move on its own.
Click to expand...
Try rotating the weight and see what happens . . .:scratch2:
 
IIRC, the weight is supposed to both adjust VTF and comp for the offset mass of the cart to make the arm laterally neutral to gravity. Tilting the TT L-R with the VTF set to '0' and the A-S disabled should result on no lateral arm drift if the adjustment is correct.
I owned one ca 1976 and the guy I'm rebuilding the Macs for has one on a TD-125, no longer being used..
 
12ax7 said:
He's talking about the rider weight, not the counterweight.
Click to expand...
Yes, so am I. I have two 3009s sitting a few feet from me. Both work the same way -- you rotate the rider weight and it moves up or back a notch on the stem. It kinda clicks with each rotation.
 
bangsezmax said:
Yes, so am I. I have two 3009s sitting a few feet from me. Both work the same way -- you rotate the rider weight and it moves up or back a notch on the stem. It kinda clicks with each rotation.
Click to expand...

OK. The ones I've had were sliders. Wouldn't the rod have to have a spiral groove or a nub for a spiral in the weight?
 
Pio1980 said:
IIRC, the weight is supposed to both adjust VTF and comp for the offset mass of the cart to make the arm laterally neutral to gravity. Tilting the TT L-R with the VTF set to '0' and the A-S disabled should result on no lateral arm drift if the adjustment is correct.
I owned one ca 1976 and the guy I'm rebuilding the Macs for has one on a TD-125, no longer being used..
Click to expand...

In the earlier 3009 tonearm owners manuals it said to move the rider weight shaft set to 0 in or out to set the offset mass and move the weight to set the VTF. The manual for my model 3009 only mentions using the rider weight for the VTF. Maybe that is why it is called the improved model.
 
kaplang said:
What would be needed if the VTF was more than 1.5G?
Click to expand...

Again IIRC, the main weight was used to establish '0' balance and the accessory weight to set VTF via it's scale.
If the TT platter/arm is in perfect "plumb" (level) the lateral offsetting won't matter in practice, it was probably overkill engineering. The arm pillar bearing assembly must be perfectly plumb for this to be in effect, this in practice is very hard to determine with this arm.
 
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kaplang said:
What would be needed if the VTF was more than 1.5G?
Click to expand...
The main weight comp'ed forward of the '0' balance position an even gram-setting equiv to add to the scale on the accessory weight setting.
Use an accessory VTF scale to make the main weight setting first.
 
IIRC (but it's from a long time ago, so YMMV) the way to adjust the lateral weight was to lift up the end of the tone arm, with the tonearm clipped into the rest, and see if the knife edges lift out of their slot at the same time. Should be somewhere in the manuals.
 
sregor said:
IIRC (but it's from a long time ago, so YMMV) the way to adjust the lateral weight was to lift up the end of the tone arm, with the tonearm clipped into the rest, and see if the knife edges lift out of their slot at the same time. Should be somewhere in the manuals.
Click to expand...

That should work as well.
 
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