Yet another 95B auto oddity

[mmarston]

Hi, folks.

I've been reading through many threads on the site but haven't yet seen anything exactly relating to my personal idiosyncrasy (some might say it's hereditary...)

Some time ago, a co-worker gave me his cosmetically excellent SL-95B that had been stored over 25 years. Of course it had the usual hardened grease issues; someone had tried to fix the cam follower and loosened its swaged pivot... the motor pulley had then chewed a large divot into the idler, etc. fortunately I had a donor 95-not-B on hand so didn't have to track down the idler. Cleaned everything, bought a 45 stacking spindle from Garage-a-Records, eventually got it to work pretty well except for one thing: when playing LPs, it shuts off normally after the last disc. But with singles, the arm returns to the disc, then the motor shuts off. I was just about to send it to Joel at the Turntable Factory when he sadly passed away. His last e-mail to me about the problem sort of cryptically implied "good luck figuring that one out on your own..."

Anyone here have any advice? Obviously it has something to do with the "last record detect" mechanism... I'll have to try the pressing-on-spindle diagnostic someone mentioned... although Joel said "there's nothing wrong with your spindle..."

I have a *lot* of 45s. Would really really like it if I could fix this last little annoying issue...

[Zaimejs]

I wish I could help you. Mine doesn't stop at all after record stacks. I have a for parts 95B that does work properly. My goal is to watch the mechanisms to figure out where mine is going wrong.

I wonder if the black spring on the bottom has anything to do with this? There is a screw that holds the black spring in place and seems to adjust the tension. I have no idea what the tension is supposed to be... how many turns, for example, is tight enough?

[mmarston]

Thanks for responding. Your thread below was one that I read, and I recalled that the long spindle feels springy when seated. I had seen the black thingie & thought "I'll hold off trying to adjust this until I find out more" & then set it aside. Now I'm wanting to pick up a couple unfinished projects... need to clear a little work space but might have another look at this soon.

I'll try pushing down on the 45 spindle when it cycles. Not sure if I can tell whether that will affect the long spindle inside though. Will post after trying even if inconclusive.

Mike

[mmarston]

I guess this could be related, if the last record detection depends on the spindle moving up slightly when unloaded..

[Zaimejs]

So last night I tried tightening the screw more to see if that would do anything... then my auto return stopped working altogether. I loosened it a bit, and the auto return worked again. It still doesn't auto stop after the last record drops, but I swear this black spring thing has me baffled.

[Zaimejs]

I'm bumping this up because summer is coming and I want to make my Garrard a miniature side project. I want to "fix" it even though it really isn't broken.

Here are my two questions for anyone who has worked on any of these old Garrards:

1. I still haven't been able to figure out the auto return problem. It drops records fine, but it will continue to restart on the last record instead of stopping like it should. I just need to find a way to let it know that there are no more records on the spindle. I have looked and looked and I just can't see how this communication happens. Help?

2. I have a "for parts" Garrard that I can pull parts off to fix my good one. It works for the most part except for the sounds... there is something horribly wrong with the wiring so it just makes noise instead of playing music. I don't want to fix this one, but it does do the auto drop correctly. The other big difference I notice is that my tone arm moves kind of choppily on my good 95-B. On the "for parts" model, it moves smoothly. The tone arm on my good one jerks before it drops, just shifts a little and I've had to adjust where it drops to make it right. It works, but I know it's not supposed to be like this.

I am trying to figure out how to make the tone arm move more smoothly... it moves fine manually, when I slide it back and forth, but it is choppy on automatic.

Neither one of these issues is a big deal, but I want to fix this for a hobby and any suggestions of where to start are welcomed.

I checked the service manual, but there wasn't much there about fixing these kinds of problems. Although the parts list is AWESOME.

[mmarston]

Thanks for keeping it alive; I haven't had any time to look at mine... family stuff... and I picked up a 2 tb external drive so can resume my archiving. The little PC's poor drive was constantly near full and I had to keep offloading to optical, it was becoming an organizational nightmare...

Maybe in a couple weeks I can carve out some bench time.

Best,
Mike

[Zaimejs]

You are filling your drive with ripped music? Must be a lot of music... doesn't take up that much space, does it?

Wow.

[mmarston]

24/96 FLAC files eat up about 30 MB/minute... I hijacked the cheap Dell we had bought for the grandkids to play games after a co-worker tossed a perfectly good M-Audio soundcard. Started with the 45s because it really is a lot of work to listen to those all evening... Before I knew it, 270 GB hard drive was almost full, was offloading to optical discs to record more... and those were becoming more and more disorganized. And the machine seems to be turning into a server of sorts.

I do make mp3s for portability, but plan to keep all the lossless files as well... barely started on the hall-closet-o-records... probably eventually need another drive. Several people have asked "why don't you just download all those songs?" What fun would that be?

Some of those same people have later said that my 320k files sound "so much clearer" than their downloads...

Best,
Mike

[Zaimejs]

That's awesome. I've ripped a few of my LPs, but only the ones I don't already have on iTunes. I rip them in lossless also, but I guess I didn't realize how much space that was taking up. That's a lot of work, but a fun hobby. I imagine that one song at a time would take forever!

Keep me posted on your deck if you make any progress.

[DSJR]

Can't comment on the main fault I'm afraid, except to say the arm should "click" into the rest position when the last record has been played and it's taken back on the return cycle (try it with the single spindle to see what I mean). The levers which deal with this should be accessible if the mech is carefully cycled by hand while you watch. It may just be a sticky lever with any luck...

As for the choppy arm movement, I'm afraid that this is a late period Garrard and in my experience ALL of them are a bit rough and ready when compared to the slick Duals and many Japanese decks with auto return - even the Lab 80 does this when the arm is smartly "thrown" back to its rest. Careful adjustment of the 95 arm maximum-height "stop" may help prevent the arm "bouncing" as its being "thrown" back and forth and again, a dab of grease in the groove of the main cam might possibly help a bit.

Good luck. I remember my SL95B with great fondness - it actually sounded half decent as my current AP76 does despite the crude mechanism and lack of the absolute precision engineering which makes the Lab 80, 401 family such desirable products these days.

[mmarston]

This example does all that just fine with the tall spindle playing LPs... It only flakes when using the 45 spindle. Which itself seems to have no obvious problems, drops records OK, etc.

I do like the sound just fine. Rollicking bottom end, a bit wooly but just the thing for a late night oldies bash.

Best,
Mike

[eddie edirol]

I just tried out mine, and this deck is smart. In order to test the changing feature, you have to have two records already up on the spindle before starting the first cycle. I started with 2 records. The auto play/stop depends on seeing the 2nd record, when the first record drops. So if you already have one record on the turntable trying to test it, without using the cycle to drop the first record, the turntable will feel that there are no records on the spindle and stop after the first record is done, even when the second record dropped with the cycle. So the cycle has to feel there is a record up there after the first record drops. 1 cycle for each record. 2 records, 2 cycles, otherwise it will stop dropping. It could be designed this way just in case you place the needle on the record by hand. Thats what seems to happen when I do that, it stops dropping records.

Now that just in case you were testing it without auto starting on the first record. I am going to post again after I find out what feels the spindle to detect the records. I know its in that bottom slider somewhere.

[eddie edirol]

I forgot to say I tested it with both 33's and the 45 stackers.