Lenco L75 Refurbishment

[Dowser]

LOL Si - understood. I should actually have looked at my arms before posting anyhow - I have no problems, see below.

So tonight I got half an hour to rebuild the bearing - reading up on LH, I decided to deviate a little to try and make bearing oil tight with grease - it's worked for an hour so far;

Everying cleaned with alcohol

Test fit of bearing suface and base plates
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I then fitted bearing (delrin?) plate, and packed behind with grease, then fitted metal plate, then fitted circlip & pushed everything down onto circip

I then pushed on plastic end cap (note very clean spindle ), and filled oil, fitted spindle (cleaned up oil), and again filled after fitting spindle, then locked spindle screw with estranged wife's spare nail varnish

After letting oil settle I tried filling from bearing top - nothing soaking down into bearing so just fitted felt washer (no photo) and left it to see if it leakes oil - so far so good

So now arms - POrtofon AS-212 comes with everything (includinf manual!), its an MKII;

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It has a collar, which fits into the Lenco hole with a mm or so to spare - I can lock this up no problem (and have enough room to play to correct for 2mm mounting length difference (either via hole of headshell slots);

Mine has a Linn style socket in the bottom (was this stock?), and what looks like screws to remove headshell connector (anyone know for sure - should I rewire this arm before fitting?!)

Should I choose to rewire, anyone know how to get arm apart? Can I remove both screws shown here and remove pillar and left/right bearing?

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Basik LVX arm also comes with collar, L75 top plate only needs a little filing to get it to fit

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But need to fix arm mount clip

Regardless, I do not like the Linn headshell fixing - too much play even when tightened, the Ortofon is much better. Ortofon has perhaps .1mm left/right (arm swing) bearing play, which is more than Linn, but I will try to adjust Ortofon. So, AS-212 it is.

It means I remove all the Lenco arm lift gubbins, so will have a couple of holes in top plate.

Finally, I never realised, guy who sold me the Linn also provided a Roksan manual VTF uage...look at photos, "Denmark" is on clear plastic holder, so guess its Ortofon - what was price difference between the two I wonder? No big deal for me - Corus Black is a likely MM to try in the Ortofon arm

Thanks, Richard

 

[Chops54]

That Ortofon looks great. Have you tried slipping the threaded Ortofon collar inside the Lenco collar?

 

[Dowser]

Good question, not yet

Although I'd like to sell the Lenco arm whole...we will see.

 

[Chops54]

If it fits I'm pretty sure I can find you a spare Lenco collar.

 

[Tony L]

The stylus guage above is oriented wrongly - the balancing arm fits the base facing the opposite direction. The correct reading is obtained when the rear part with, in this case a Roksan logo, is flush with the sides.

 

[Dowser]

Ha-ha - thanks Tony...I haven't used it yet

 

[sazalirazak]

Ive had this for a few months now, in stock standard form absolutely love the drive n slam of a classic lenco

Bearing and motor relubed as per instructions on LH changed to proper earthed 3 pin mains plug for safety reasons

Been reading up about ptp mods and various enhancements but just cant bring myself to butcher a virgin lenco for now

 

[Dowser]

Nice - what's the arm?

Richard

 

[PaulMB]

Surely that is the arm that came with it? It looks a lot better than the plough on the 75.

 

[sazalirazak]

Its an OEM Jelco arm made for the S series Lenco

Jelco SA 13 T L1

 

[muzzer]

I have just resurrected my L75 project, it's a layered plywood plinth and I have transferred my Ekos2/Troika from my LP12 on to it.
It sounds really good in fact I am going to move on the LP12/Sole/Geddon clone.
I have cleaned out the bearing and filled it with some silicone oil and I had fitted some Something Solid Dissipating Feet, also placed a Inspire Acri-Mat on the std rubber mat.
The tonearm is still a touch nose down with this arragement and I am unsure as how to get the VTA right, maybe a thicker mat?
Here are the latest pics

 

[limono]

I simply don't know where that "sound and slam" come from regarding old clunkers , i.e idler TT's . My TD124 sounded rather constrained and shut in. The same impression I had when auditioning "high End " Lenco project from High end American pro outfit dealing with extravagant restoration of Idler drivers and charging hefty premium for their beautiful machines. I talked to the owner and proprietor of the outfit regarding my less the stellar results with TD124 . He said " don't bother with TD124 , the only quality it has it's an appearance which speaks to bored tinnitus affected retires . Even Lenco is better " The thing is his souped up Lenco sounded equally bad . Just small AM sound they were made for. I'm waiting to hear an EMT which supposed to be pinnacle of idler TT's,

 

[Dowser]

Surely that is the arm that came with it? It looks a lot better than the plough on the 75.

My thoughts entirely

Its an OEM Jelco arm made for the S series Lenco

Jelco SA 13 T L1



....

Thanks - I never realised Lenco supplied decks with decent arms Instead of butchering your deck, why not do a stealth mass build up on inside of stock plinth? There are a few posts on LH referencing this approach.

I have just resurrected my L75 project, it's a layered plywood plinth and I have transferred my Ekos2/Troika from my LP12 on to it.
It sounds really good in fact I am going to move on the LP12/Sole/Geddon clone.
I have cleaned out the bearing and filled it with some silicone oil and I had fitted some Something Solid Dissipating Feet, also placed a Inspire Acri-Mat on the std rubber mat.
The tonearm is still a touch nose down with this arragement and I am unsure as how to get the VTA right, maybe a thicker mat?
...

Nice! Is it possible to use a different collar arrangement to reduce arm height a bit? Building up mat thickness never seemed a good idea to me.

How did you deal with top plate and/or bearing bracing on your build?

I simply don't know where that "sound and slam" come from regarding old clunkers , i.e idler TT's . My TD124 sounded rather constrained and shut in. The same impression I had when auditioning "high End " Lenco project from High end American pro outfit dealing with extravagant restoration of Idler drivers and charging hefty premium for their beautiful machines. I talked to the owner and proprietor of the outfit regarding my less the stellar results with TD124 . He said " don't bother with TD124 , the only quality it has it's an appearance which speaks to bored tinnitus affected retires . Even Lenco is better " The thing is his souped up Lenco sounded equally bad . Just small AM sound they were made for. I'm waiting to hear an EMT which supposed to be pinnacle of idler TT's,

My listening tests with stock arm and original flimsy plinth also left me very unimpressed - limited dynamic range and a very muddled presentation. However, it must be capable of better - Muzzer has a similar spec LP12 to myself (I have 774 arm and Asaka cartridge), and he has moved on - he is by no means alone.

I hope to play with idler and/or motor today...but have horrible accounting to do first.

Richard

 

[Dowser]

Only got as far as removing the old arm lift gubbins today (I left the mounting plate underneath, I reckon it strengthens the top plate around the arm area), and oiling the idler assembly bearing with sewing machine oil - I wanted to strip and clean it, but don't have the right circlip tool (I could praised it off, but don't want to risk damaging the fibre washers) - there was minuscule play before I flushed with alcohol and re-oiled, zero afterwards. I also wrapped the idler arm in electrical tape - not sure it helps...but it doesn't hurt . Pictures later. Just the motor to strip, clean, re-oil and reassemble with adjustment now.

Richard

 

[muzzer]

Nice! Is it possible to use a different collar arrangement to reduce arm height a bit? Building up mat thickness never seemed a good idea to me.

How did you deal with top plate and/or bearing bracing on your build?

I am going to look into other possibilities for the arm mount, at the moment the arm is in the std Lenco collar with a 35mm film canister. I may cutaway some of the top plate and fix the Linn collar to the plinth.
The top plate is secured to the top layer of the plinth with four wood screws, I used the plinth templates from Lenco Heaven.
Here is the plinth after assembly.

and with top plate fitted

 

[paskinn]

I simply don't know where that "sound and slam" come from regarding old clunkers , i.e idler TT's . My TD124 sounded rather constrained and shut in. The same impression I had when auditioning "high End " Lenco project from High end American pro outfit dealing with extravagant restoration of Idler drivers and charging hefty premium for their beautiful machines. I talked to the owner and proprietor of the outfit regarding my less the stellar results with TD124 . He said " don't bother with TD124 , the only quality it has it's an appearance which speaks to bored tinnitus affected retires . Even Lenco is better " The thing is his souped up Lenco sounded equally bad . Just small AM sound they were made for. I'm waiting to hear an EMT which supposed to be pinnacle of idler TT's,

I'm no fan of idler wheel decks; it can't be a very sensible way of getting something to revolve smoothly and silently.
However, I recently heard a Lenco with a 90lb wooden plinth, and it did sound most excellent. So, don't know what to think, they are old clunkers, but they can sound very good too!

 

[Dowser]

A bit of a delay, but I have slowly been progressing...

Thanks Muzzer - I want to find a better way of having the plinth contact a larger area of top plate ultimately.

So, pictures & progres

Idler arm and vintage circlip;

I removed all the arm lift and rest stuff, but left the gold bracing plate in there, thinking it adds a limited amount of bracing for the arm itself (plus the bit that sticks down means it sits nicely on my workbench without risk of damage );

Motor springs after demounting the motor ready for relube and adjustment;

Testing the motor afterwards - absolutely silent sitting directly on a wooden table;

Putting everything back together, with AS-212 arm;

Re-glueing the plinth bits that the top plate screws into (both were loose, with basically just a dab of glue used originally). Note plinth is still only in a wore wooled state - not sure how to best treat it - oil? Suggestions/advice welcome;

Filling up the reservoir with as much oil as possible, and then using extra nail varnish to seal the end cap in an attempt to stop it seeping out slowly - seems to work so far;

Then last weekend I go to fit one the spare LO MCs I picked up with an HK ST7 linear drive a year or so back (ST7 now resides in my office system, and very nice it sounds too) - one is an early VdH MC-10, the other a Dynavector Ruby. I spent an hour first cleaning the cartridge and then mounting and adjusting it. With trepidation I remove the LP12 and whack the Lenco up on the shelf and connect everything up. No fecking sound...the coils are open on the VdH. Damn! I should have checked before going to the trouble of fitting it. Looks nice though

I hope to try the Ruby tonight, that at least has continuity in it's coils!

Richard

 

[337alant]

Nice job Richard they are a lovely and very simple turntable the L75
Ive heard a few over the last few years and they sound incredible really considering how cheap they are to buy

I fitted a Jelco 250 arm on a mates a few months ago so got to have a good listen to it and it sounded superb with my Denon DL110 & 160 on it
I think the bearing is the main weakness on the turntable as they allways end up leaking
I fitted a PTFE shim on his and sealed the bearing cap with candle wax and self amalgamating tape

IMG_1911 by alan.towell1, on Flickr

Alan

 

[Dowser]

Wow - this thing has no right to sound this good! I'm kind of gobsmacked - attack and decay are just in another world compared to the LP12. I'm not sure about the high frequencies yet, but I definitely need to try putting the Asaka onto the Lenco, and the Dynavector DV Karat (I was wrong above) onto the Linn - I've never heard a vintage Dynavector before, so do not know its character.

So, I have a turntable I paid £17.50 for and have spent maybe 10-15 hours refurbishing. It's sporting an Ortofon AS-212 arm, an el-cheapo eBay headshell and a DV Karat. It is challenging my LP12 with Sole subchassis, original 774 arm, DIY Geddon and Asaka! At the moment I am very focused on the slam of the Lenco (attack and decay), I just put Talk Talk - Colour of Spring on, and simply laughed half way through Happiness is Easy. Think I need to listen a bit more, late night on way

Thanks Alan - yes, it is very simple, I am very impressed with the engineering of this thing. I think the bearing itself is OK (mine is so far sealed with nail varnish), but mounted into the flexible top plate is not so good I think.

Anyhow, piccies with the DV Karat making very nice music;

I'm off for a late night listening session

Richard

 

[muzzer]

Well! after a couple of weeks with the Lenco I have gone back to the LP12.
The Lenco was decent enough and I really wanted it to sound better than the Linn after all the work I had put in but to these ears the old fruitbox wins the day.