• Please note that Audiokarma will be offline briefly for updates early on Monday morning, September 28th.

Yamaha PX-3 Tone Arm Issue

I tightened the spring you can also flip the big belt over. I also noticed if these are not level it can't pull the tonearm up hill . I has thought about putting grip tape on the smooth plastic rollers , mine started working though.
Scott
 
Thank you Scott for your reply. The pulley is on the right, and the motor assembly on the left are both in level, they are flat with a metal base. Yes, I did flip the belt, and it's still slipping ... clearly I have bad springs
 
Thank you Scott for your reply. The pulley is on the right, and the motor assembly on the left are both in level, they are flat with a metal base. Yes, I did flip the belt, and it's still slipping ... clearly I have bad springs
The turntable has to be level
 
Thank you Scott for your reply. The pulley is on the right, and the motor assembly on the left are both in level, they are flat with a metal base. Yes, I did flip the belt, and it's still slipping ... clearly I have bad springs
I shortened the springs
 
You may shorten the springs a little bit. This works, I have done it several times. You may also try to find suitable springs in an assortment of springs which you can find in almost any hardware store or in one of the marketplaces in the web.
Then there are liquids restoring the grip of rubber or plastic rolls made primarily for printers. With a Q-tip wipe all the pulleys and the belts. If you have the newer arm drive, not the one with the worm drive, there are three small small belts which must be replaced, too. These belts can easily to be found in the usual auction platform. If the large belt is severely dried and brittle you might also apply a very thin layer of Loctite 8005.
 
Yes ... otherwise built like a brick shithouse, but that big fat transport belt generally needs regular maintenance. And you will know when it's time.
 
I shortened the springs
Did you get it moving! May just take several trys playing it! And it will eventually start hooking up. Happened to me before. I love mine it's awesome and I have over 20 turntables it's my favorite on automatic.
 
IMO flipping the 2 belt sections isn't a good plan. The belts take a "set" where they park non the two drums. The "set" is largely responsible for the failure to move dilemma.
Between the set and the hard/oxidized surface of a 40 year old belt, it is easy for the belt to slip at the deformity ion start-up.
Flipping the belt might be helpful if the service side is real glazed, but the now backwards "U" where it had parked is now bigger and on the opposite side of the belts.
I always scuff up the service side of the belt with ScotchBrite, de-glaze the drums by lateral strokes with 320 wet or dry paper, then a belt dressing, the name of which evades me.
Springs don't need any help here unless the belt has stretched. I've only found one stretched belt in the 6 PXs I've serviced. Ion that case I did shorten the springs by the amount of the stretching.
Somewhere on this forum is my post; it details the length of a (new) factory belt and the type of belt dressing (I tried 5 dressings on latex gloves to confirm they didn't degrade rubber)
After doing the above, the arm climbed at least a 20* pitch, probably 30*. I didn't measure.
 
IMO flipping the 2 belt sections isn't a good plan. The belts take a "set" where they park non the two drums. The "set" is largely responsible for the failure to move dilemma.
Between the set and the hard/oxidized surface of a 40 year old belt, it is easy for the belt to slip at the deformity ion start-up.
Flipping the belt might be helpful if the service side is real glazed, but the now backwards "U" where it had parked is now bigger and on the opposite side of the belts.
I always scuff up the service side of the belt with ScotchBrite, de-glaze the drums by lateral strokes with 320 wet or dry paper, then a belt dressing, the name of which evades me.
Springs don't need any help here unless the belt has stretched. I've only found one stretched belt in the 6 PXs I've serviced. Ion that case I did shorten the springs by the amount of the stretching.
Somewhere on this forum is my post; it details the length of a (new) factory belt and the type of belt dressing (I tried 5 dressings on latex gloves to confirm they didn't degrade rubber)
After doing the above, the arm climbed at least a 20* pitch, probably 30*. I didn't measure.
Great information thank you. Mine is working like a champ after flipping my belt and cleaning everything up.and oil it places . But no oil on the belts .
 
Thank you for all the comments. I replaced 3 small belts on the left side, cleaned plastic rollers, and used 320 dry paper on it. Clean up good internal rubber roller on the bottom plastic pulley (left side) user "vintage" L&M Rubber Roller cleaner (I think it's from 90s), reverse belts wiped them with the same L&M rubber cleaner, same issue, belts are slippering like I did not do anything. Before I started cleaning, it was moving very little, on and off, but it was moving, after all this, it stopped

20241223_135330.jpg

20241223_135338.jpg

20241223_141914.jpg

20241223_141903.jpg
:(
 
Thanks Phil. I measured both belts and they are 10¼". Next, I will try scotch brite on these wide belts and see if it makes any difference. I will also rotate this belts back to the original position (side)
 
a third option you can try is to switch them side to side which will move the"set"section relative to the drive drum, keeping the insides in.
I believe that the belt dressing I've used is "Sprayon" Belt Dressing. I used it the first time 15 years ago and that PX2 still works fine.
 
I may be confused, but I thought he implied that all those things hadn’t worked for him and it still was slipping. If that is the case, I can almost guarantee that the Sprayon dressing will fix it.
 
OK, the Belt Dressing arrived. I sprayed it on the rag and wiped the belts well! I assembled everything back, and it's working now, but it still slips a little. Can I spray this Dressing directly on the belt?
 
I used Loctite 8005 belt dressing which I sprayed directly on the belt. Only a very thin layer is required. Let it dry a few hours. I did this 3 or 4 years ago and since then the TT is working perfectly.
 
It worked! I sprayed "dressing" directly on the belt, and let it stay for 3-4 hrs, I think it was a little too much, the belt was covered in excessive sticky (jam looking) residue. I end up spraying more, to be able to clean some of it out. When the belt had nothing on it except for a sticky "shiny" surface, I let it stay overnight and reinstalled it in TT. Belt was still sticky enough, and the tonearm assembly started sliding with ALMOST no issues. When I apply external power to the motor, the tonearm moves OK, but in 2 spots had a small hiccup in motion. I gave up and assembled all back together on my TT. With connection to the controller board, it works ok to me.

Thank you all for your help!
And Happy New Year!!!
 
Back
Top Bottom