Technics SL-1900 cueing issue

[Christopherlaw]

Yes, another thread about cueing problems with the SL-1900.

My problem is that after playing a record, the cueing lever automatically raises and the tonearm goes back to its resting area. But when I try to start playing again the tonearm is prevented from immediately lowering onto the record because the cueing lever takes about 5-10 minutes to lower again...unless i manually lower it with a screwdriver. It's ultimately functional but really annoying.

I tried lowering the lever with the adjustable screw to find a sweet spot but can't; when the record finishes, the tonearm wants to drag the stylus over the record which gives me cold sweats and fear just thinking about it.

I've seen a few threads about the cueing lever being totally stuck and maybe changing out the grease will help. However, I'm really afraid to take the whole turntable apart because I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm wondering if there is a relatively simple way to totally disable the tonearm from reseting to its original position after the record finishes playing. I'm totally happy to manually operate the tonearm if that's possible.

I'd hate to have to go on the hunt for another turntable because of this. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

[Christopherlaw]

After more research on this site, I found this:

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/tech ... tins.shtml

I'm starting to make peace with the idea that I have to disassemble the whole thing and replace the grease on the lift cams, etc. to get it working properly. There's probably no easy way to disable the auto-return on the tonearm or it would have been discussed...

[gridleakrick]

Cleaning and re-lubing the lift cam pivot point is relatively easy and doesn't require much dis-assembly. Replacing the silicon goop on the lift pin, now that is a job which requires major dis-assembly but is not too bad if you have above average mechanical ability and common sense.
Rick

[Christopherlaw]

Fixed! I found this old thread to be incredibly useful in terms of how to disassemble the turntable.

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