Hey All
Like many, I picked up a used 1209 for $10 yesterday, and after lurking through some of the posts on lubrication, etc in preparation...I finally opened it up last night to asses the damage.
When I got it it was not working however I could hear the motor and feel it heating a little so I knew it was getting power. I could see that the idler wheel was jut not contacting the platter. The speed switch assembly was VERY gunked up with grease, so I just quickly gave it a cleaning by scraping some of the gunk out. I can now get the idler wheel to touch by manually moving the switch assembly and therefore get the platter spinning. This brings me to my main problem.
1. The start stop switch seems to just move freely back and forth but it doesn't cause much to happen underneath. I can see that the switch movement is turning the gold piece underneath but it's almost like is not catching onto anything. So when you move the switch it just feels like its stripped or something.
Can the actual switch knobs be removed? I don't see any indication on the best way in the service manual.
2. Second, the tone arm lift isn't doing anything, just swinging around. I looked at the service manual But I'm having a hard time discerning from that angle how the crescent shaped piece attached to the bottom of the lift underneath is supposed to be somehow connected to the arm, or just supposed to somehow move it.
3. Overall, I can manually start the platter by reaching underneath and lightly moving the arm connected to the start switch. The arm raises, moves, drops for about 3 seconds, then raises up again and moves towards the rest. It does this almost in a loop constantly.
Any help would be appreciated.

