R-80 Transfer Arm Issue.

Hey guys,

Quick question. As of late when picking up a record my R-80 arm will get stuck on the turntable when putting the record down. It gets jammed to the point I have to physically clear it, most of the time the tone arm ends up underneath it by the time i can get it. this is only happening on A-Sides. B-Sides the arm clears the turntable rubber just fine.

thanks in advance for the help as always.

Nick

Hi Nick,
I "have been tolt", that this is caused by either "bad" grease, or lack of grease, in the "trunnion pins" (see your service manual).
Whut we used to do when I was working for an "emergency night service" was to squirt a little 20 wt.oil in the pins, write a "ticket" for the operator, and "run like hell"--Most of the time, the "ticket" was ignored, and the phono ran OK for a few weeks, then it would do it again--at which time, we would repeat the process, only warning the operator that, if this happens again, there would be an "extra charge"--this usually resolved the problem--for us, anyway !
So, what I suggest you do is to look at those pins, and remove "old grease", and re-grease them--
Ron Rich

Thank you very much. I will check it out.

I agree with Ron, you want to strip down the gripper bow assembly and wash all the parts in warm soapy water (a tooth brush comes in handy) dry off and check the Cam & Trunion gears for any inperfection and change if required. Re grease the tunnion sockets at each end with high melting point grease and reassemble.

It might be an idea to check the toggle pin bushes that they are not seized.
If they are stip down the the toggle pins & the bushes and the cross link (201-10823).

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

I added some lubrication to the trunnions and it now will lay down the record most times fine but then on it's way back up as the gripper arm is turning it seems to get stuck sometimes flinging the record off and I have to manually straighten the gripper arm back into place.

I will end up taking everything apart and cleaning to see what results I get.

It now sounds as if it's going "too fast". If so, there should be what Rowe called a "Bowed washer" ("Normal", crazy people like me, call them "wave washers") between the tonearm cam and the Nylon bearing. I have seen them "up and go missing","all by themselves"--If not tight, or "missing", what happens is the gear "catches" the gripper and "spins" it too quickly, causing the problem you describe. It also tends to "slam" records down on the TT, when not properly adjusted --You add tension to the wave washer by moving the tone arm cam closer to the Nylon bearing.
Ron Rich