advertisement


Trio KD1033 Arm Bearings

A

andrew

pfm Member
Dear All

I bought an old KD1033 deck last week. It's in fairly good condition. I noticed a bit of play in the arm bearings when twisting the tube lightly between thumb and forefinger, however. This seems to disappear when the counterweight is on. Is it meant to be like that?

I can see the screws at the side of the arm in little locking rings, where I think it would be adjusted, but I haven't touched it.

The deck actually sounds fine, with no obvious distortion. I've just ordered some oil to freshen up the main bearing and motor, and a new belt, but don't intend to go mad with it.

Thanks

Andrew
 
Most arm bearings are meant to run un-lubricated, so leave well alone.

Alignment of bearings, in this day and age, would require a CMM, even though it would have been done manually and by ear in the past, so don't faff with that either.
 
Co-ordinate measuring machine.
They do what very careful set-up/jigging and numerous mechanical measuring devices, followed by masses of maths, would have done more than 30 or so years ago, but in way less than 10% of the time, if the programming is right.
 
Well, I'll be leaving the arm as-is then! Thanks

I'll just put a few drops of new oil in the platter spindle and enjoy it.
 
Vinny said:
Most arm bearings are meant to run un-lubricated, so leave well alone.

Alignment of bearings, in this day and age, would require a CMM, even though it would have been done manually and by ear in the past, so don't faff with that either.
Click to expand...

Don‘t agree @Vinny - my LP12 when I bought had an original Linn Basik on it ( s shaped arm tube). Performance was not great with a DL-110 initially, removing free play in bearings was easy to do and made a big improvement. Nip bearings up equally each side, keeping arm tube in middle until just before sticking occurs, then back off quarter of a turn. It‘ll take a few goes when re-tightening end Cups to keep things optimal, but pretty straight forward and gains definitely worthwhile!

Richard
 
Yes, wot Dowser said. If you can put a stylus cover on the cart or just remove the stylus, balance the arm so it is level. As you adjust the bearings, just (and I mean JUST) lightly nudge the arm so it just sways up and down. If the play is minimal, you can just adjust one side. Just nip the locking ring off slightly, then adjust the central point by small amounts. When you are just too tight it will bounce rather than slowly sway up/down. At that point just back off a tiny amount until you go back to a steady up/down sway. Then lock and re-check. You may then need to back off a little more if locking takes you back to a slight bounce.
 
Before attempting to adjust tonearm bearings it would be prudent to isolate each set in order to determine whether the loose pair(s) be horizontal or vertical (or both). For example, simply giving the arm tube a twist and feeling some play doesn't necessarily reveal whether the tube is shifting relative to the arm carrier, or the arm carrier shifting relative to pillar.

Specifically, one need hold the arm carrier firm whilst testing for vertical bearing play, vs wiggling the arm carrier about in order to detect horizontal bearing play. It is important to get this right before attempting adjustment of what might be well adjusted bearings already, especially so, when using nothing more than 'feel' as precision feeler gauge, let alone sans jig.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top