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Zenith F736W - Anyone have one? Trying to repair.

O

oliveryasuna

New Member
Picked up a beautiful, yet mysterious vintage stereo by Zenith this week. After an hour of searching the web, Pinterest revealed 2 pages of an 1974 magazine. Finally, I had found my model number!

Anyway, I'm looking to repair the turntable, which doesn't seem to be turning (unless I'm crazy). I would just unscrew the back, but I'm afraid of damaging the old beaut'.

Has anyone worked on this model or a similar one?

Appreciate the help, thank you all.
 
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As said, it's a BSR but with the Zenith Micro Touch tonearm on it. Looks like the cartridge is missing parts. There should be knob on the top of it. First thing to do would be to remove the clip holding the platter on and remove it. The platter itself is likely seized on by dry grease. Remove the center spindle and stick a soldering iron in the hole for a little while until the grease melts.
 
Go to Youtube, and watch Bryan Tennyson's video on BSR changer overhaul. It gives you what you need to know about doing this without damage.
 
The knob on top was snapped directly onto the stylus assembly (which included two cantilevers and stylii, one for LP and one for 78), with a spring in between to keep the stylus firmly against the cartridge. New stylus assemblies from Zenith included a new spring and knob, iirc. I think you can still find Pfanstiehl or other aftermarket stylii, not sure you'll get a new knob with it. FYI, I purchased a Zenith Allegro unit new around 1975, iirc. Mine didn't include the 8-track. The turntable had different styling on the sliders for mode and speed, but the same platter and tonearm. The whole unit was 'wedge' styled. It sounded good within the limits of its low power output. I would sometimes place the Allegro 1000 speakers bedside, and it sounded really good at low volume iirc. The phono cartridge is a ceramic unit. These may degrade with age, not sure on that.
 
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