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The Official SOTA Turntable Thread

Can someone help me connect the grey power supply wire - 2 cables, one with a red line and one not, both register voltage going through them - to the motor board? Where do the grey wires go? To the white box or the black box behind it and where on the appropriate box? When I tried to attach the wires to the black box the wires sparked. Thanks.
 

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findog said:
Can someone help me connect the grey power supply wire - 2 cables, one with a red line and one not, both register voltage going through them - to the motor board? Where do the grey wires go? To the white box or the black box behind it and where on the appropriate box? When I tried to attach the wires to the black box the wires sparked. Thanks.
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Which model do you have?
 
Sapphire ii with Pabst motor.
 

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Hmm, not sure I can be much help here, I have a Star Sapphire and it it different from what you have, I don't have the separate power supply, mine is built into the vacuum unit.
 
mprince said:
I will see if I can get a picture without taking the motor board out. Going to be a few days probably.
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I had a quick look, and to see those wires the platter as well as the motor board needs to come out. Not going to happen anytime soon, apologies. Hopefully someone who has theirs apart can get a picture for you. You may want to see if you can find a thread started by member visman (I think), I remember him building up a Sapphire from parts.

I remember having mine apart in the past to replace the power switch, and all of the wires went to a molex plug on mine, nothing from the wire harness went directly to the board. You may want to email SOTA and see if they can help, these tables went through a lot of variations/revisions so there are assembly differences within models and generations.
 
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A friend has a Sota Sapphire series V table, and I want to replace the Sumiko FT-3 with a Kenwood KD-500 tonearm. Any thoughts on that?

Of course, I’ll need a new armboard drilled for the Kenwood tonearm; can I buy one direct from Donna at Sota?

If not, can anybody recommend someone who’ll sell a pre-drilled armboard to me?
 
findog said:
Sapphire ii with Pabst motor.
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I do not recognize the black unit with the dial and push button - like the others my PS and Platter Vacuum reside in the large grey/silver box (with the umbilical cord). Here is a pic of how my umbilical cord is connected/wired inside the plinth - but again I do not have the black gizo.

IMG_4182.jpegIMG_4181.jpeg
 
so, got the Pabst motor issue fixed on my Sapphire ii and turntable speed was good but with high wow and flutter. I cleaned the capstan and flywheel with alcohol and now it doesn’t spin so well, as it is sticking to the bottom plate with the leather like border. Do I need to put some light grease on the motor capstan?
 
Also, I'd remove the belt and run the motor without and see if it runs smoothly. Could be that the cleaned pulley is grabbing the belt. It's all about reducing variables...
 
findog said:
It’s a new belt. The shaft runs fine. But when I put the capstan and belt on it struggles. What type of oil?
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Is it a SOTA belt or a generic one, details are important. Does the motor run smoothly with the pulley attached (no belt)?
 
Not sure if it’s generic or SOTA. I have the old one. The capstan spins with belt but sometimes slides all the way down the pin and stops.
 
The new one came in a bag labeled SOTA though and was working fine after I had to fix the wires attached to the motor and before I applied alcohol to the pin and capstan. It spins fine without capstan but the capstan stops spinning when belt is applied and rubs against the bottom plate where the fiction is too great.
 
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