sideshowbob
Champagne fascia aficionado
Last summer I bought a Lenco GL75 for £75. Seller had no idea if it even powered up, but I fancied a restoration job, having never worked on a turntable before. But it ended up staying in the garage, while I got distracted building a preamp and a power amp. A couple of weeks ago I finally got it out and took a look.
The motor worked, and ran silent. No idler wheel present, just a broken tensioner spring. The plinth in reasonable shape, the arm shot. The platter in need of a polish but otherwise sound. Given the motor seemed fine, worth a shot.
So, I bought a NOS idler from eBay, and set to work rewiring the original bell wire with three core. I earthed it properly, and replaced the ancient spark suppressor cap with a new one.
Here's the new wiring in progress
The old cap
New idler fitted
Then the motor and bearing were stripped down, cleaned and relubed. Here's the bearing
My Linn geometry Jelco 250 is a drop in replacement for the original arm, it just needed a collar shim, also acquired from eBay, which also gives easy VTA adjustment with 2 grub screws.
Even in the stock plinth there's no idler rumble, and the motor is dead silent, but a seller on eBay (ultramagnus404) is offering nice looking heavy ply plinths for a very reasonable price. I ordered one, and 10 days later it arrived, looking very smart.
I gave it four layers of beeswax polish. Here it is after the first layer
The finished deck
Total cost about £300 (I already had the arm and a Michell Unicover), and a couple of hours of my time. After a few adjustments having relubed the bearing the speeds are spot on, all four of them. Pitch stability is perfect. Low end welly is awesome. This is by some distance the best record player I've ever owned. These are beautiful decks to work on. Quality motor, very simple design, nothing is hidden or inaccessible. And the lencoheaven website is full of information. Prices of GL75s are going up, but they're still a fraction of what you have to pay to get a Garrard. Very satisfying restore job, this.
The motor worked, and ran silent. No idler wheel present, just a broken tensioner spring. The plinth in reasonable shape, the arm shot. The platter in need of a polish but otherwise sound. Given the motor seemed fine, worth a shot.
So, I bought a NOS idler from eBay, and set to work rewiring the original bell wire with three core. I earthed it properly, and replaced the ancient spark suppressor cap with a new one.
Here's the new wiring in progress
The old cap
New idler fitted
Then the motor and bearing were stripped down, cleaned and relubed. Here's the bearing
My Linn geometry Jelco 250 is a drop in replacement for the original arm, it just needed a collar shim, also acquired from eBay, which also gives easy VTA adjustment with 2 grub screws.
Even in the stock plinth there's no idler rumble, and the motor is dead silent, but a seller on eBay (ultramagnus404) is offering nice looking heavy ply plinths for a very reasonable price. I ordered one, and 10 days later it arrived, looking very smart.
I gave it four layers of beeswax polish. Here it is after the first layer
The finished deck
Total cost about £300 (I already had the arm and a Michell Unicover), and a couple of hours of my time. After a few adjustments having relubed the bearing the speeds are spot on, all four of them. Pitch stability is perfect. Low end welly is awesome. This is by some distance the best record player I've ever owned. These are beautiful decks to work on. Quality motor, very simple design, nothing is hidden or inaccessible. And the lencoheaven website is full of information. Prices of GL75s are going up, but they're still a fraction of what you have to pay to get a Garrard. Very satisfying restore job, this.
