Stylus Pressure Spring

Can someone post some photo examples of which spring on the back of a Philco turntable is the "Stylus Pressure Spring" and how to adjust it? I plan on purchasing the Shure SFG-2 to adjust and keep the needle from skating across the record.
Thanks, Joe

In that Philco made many different turntables and used OEMs from other manufacturers there is no way to answer this question without more info. Pictures would be very helpful.

Thom

Thanks for the response. Here are 2 photos.

Thats a Webcor changer like i thought you might have had and posted a reference picture of when chatting with you in your other post. The stylus pressure spring is the bottom one shown in the tonearm picture. I believe theres a nut you have to turn to increase (lighter) or decrease (heavier) tension. The upper spring shown is connected to the tonearm set down adjustment.

Remember that you still have to replace the idler or have it professionally rebuilt to fix the noise problem along with a good de-grease and repack of your platter bearing assembly. Did you try putting two records on and see if the tonearm still skated across the record? If it dont skate with two or more records then the tonearm height might need to be adjusted also. From what i see in your pictures you have the correct cartridge for this tonearm (sonotone with J shape needle) so unless someone tampered with it, the stylus pressure should be correct. If the suspension pad in the cartridge is shot, that can cause skate as the cartridge body will be sitting on the record not letting the needle track. You can check this by sitting the tonearm on a record with the power turned off. If the needle goes up into the body and the body sits on the record then the suspension pad is shot causing skate. That means the cartridge is worn out. NOS sonotones are easy to get and play well on this system and would be original to the design. But if your set on using the Shure cartridge, it should be about the same weight as the sonotone so you shouldnt have to adjust the pressure spring unless its been tampered with. The shure will require a pre-amp to feed your stereo.
-Tony

Tony,
The record player worked (though noisy) before I replaced the needle. I got a replacement and now it skates.
Would a photo of the cartridge and the needle show if it's missing the pad? Probably my doing?
Thanks

A photo may help. It sounds like you may have purchased a defective needle or the pad may have colapsed or got damaged during replacement (easy to do on worn stereo cartridges) if it worked before changing the needle. Did you try putting the old needle back in afterwards to see if it went back to playing like before? The good news is this particular cartridge with needle is still available from several reputable vendors and is still quite reasonable. The good thing also is that you wont have to modify your phonograph in anyway by doing that. Go ahead and post a picture if you can and and i can advise you what to do next. Once you get the couple of things taken care of on your Philco, i think you will like it as these were built quite well and played great.
-Tony

Ditto Radiokub. Also, regardless of what cartridge you decide on you will have to have enough VTF to overcome the inherant mechanism friction and activate the changer when the stylus enters the lead-out. You will want to make sure the cartridge can handle this weight.

Thom

Two possibilities on the needle:

1. The diamond stylus tip is missing from the new needle. They are glued on, and can be knocked off by mishandling.

2. You got a 78 rpm stylus by mistake. It will skate across an LP record, because the tip is too big to fit in the grooves.

Thanks folks,
The stylus tip is still there and I purchased an exact replacement. Here are 2 photos.

Did you check to make sure that the needle is not retracting into the cartridge when sitting on a record? I have two of these carts. and they both have bad (weak) suspensions allowing the needle to slip into the cart while the cart itself rides on the record.