Magavox Collaro

You described my unit exactly. On mine it appears that the thin felt is the thrust bearing as it is the only thing the tonearm shaft seems to be riding on. If this friction is normal during playback (anti-skate?), then I am going to probably abandond the magnetic cartridge idea and run with the NOS ceramic I installed a few years ago. Thank you for the photofact. I have a lot of them but never seem to have the ones I need.

This Turntable has been used with heavier-tracking magnetic cartridges such a the GE RPX and VRII, it should be able to handle the Pickering/Stanton P/AC, NP/AC, 400, 500 type of stereo magnetic cartridge. If you are looking to use something that tracks at 1-2 grams, I think you can forget about it.

For all who are interested, I have posted scans of all 11 pages of the **** manual for the RC-456, in a higher resolution than those few I posted here. They are available at http://oldtech.net/TT.html

Actually, I have several GE VRIIs and RPX. I also was considering a Stanton. I agree that this changer is meant for heavier tracking carts and a GE would be proper for the vintage of the unit. I was just looking for better tracking ( not necessarily lighter) and better tone than the ceramic cart. Thanks a million for the upload. I've been looking for this one for a while.

Brian McAllister wrote:For all who are interested, I have posted scans of all 11 pages of the **** manual for the RC-456, in a higher resolution than those few I posted here. They are available at http://oldtech.net/TT.html

It was discovered that page 7 on the manual was a duplicate of page 5. This has been corrected and the proper page 7 is now in place.

Well, I ended up replacing the NOS N26 cartridge with a new ceramic cart that I've had good luck with in my other rebuilds. Tracks well at 4-5 grams and sounds better than the N26. I discovered that the Collero headshell for the GE cart is too heavy. It required that I up the counter spring rate which threw it way out of spec. 1st record it tracked at 6.0 grams and the 5th record tracked at 11 grams. The original set-up only increased by 1 gram. So I am just going to fall back and enjoy my Maggie for awhile and maybe try again some other day. Thanks for the help!

On the Conquest revised , there were two fluon washers at the top of the tonearm shaft (just under the tonearm bracket). There is no thrust bearing at the bottom end.

On both units, the tonearm scan clutch assembly (a cylinder on the tonearm shaft) must be adjusted vertically so it does NOT drag on any of the following:

The lower tonearm shaft bearing
The upper tonearm shaft bearing
The change cycle assembly frame
The change cycle cam.

There are two fingers in the clutch assembly. Make sure the lower finger is at the outer end of its travel (it hits a stop on the cycle assembly frame) at the same time the tonearm is on the rest before tightening the screws.

The lower finger is the trip finger. Make sure it goes into the slot or V on the trip arm under the cam.

The upper finger is the pickup arm positioning finger. It is controlled by the cam, and has a slipclutch for measuring the record size.

After adjusting the height of the clutch assembly, adjust the height of the pickup arm positioning finger. When the changer is out of cycle, there should be a 1/32 inch gap between the floor of the change cycle cam and the tip if the finger, so the needle can track the record. Measure when the arm is over the turntable, not on the rest. There is a screw on the side of the clutch assembly away from the finger to adjust this.

If the pickup arm positioning finger is too low, it drags, affecting tracking. If it is too high, the size indexing becomes unreliable.

The older Conquest has a gate on the cam that can drag the pickup arm during manual play. The TSC-640 used since 1959 no longer has the gate. All of the stereo Collaros in Magnavox stereos are in the TSC series.

The limiting factor of tracking the record is the pair of fluon washers if the arm is set up properly. I have had the trip mechanism of a TSC-640 operate correctly when the arm was tracking at 1.5 grams equivalent force (but the tonearm itself had trouble due to the fluon washers).The ceramic pickups that are stock on these track at 3 grams equivalent force with no trouble.

The trip friction clutch is at the turntable hub, and is operated entirely by gravity. The trip striker rests on top of the trip arm. Any piece of felt at the tonearm shaft has nothing to do with it. It might be a lube wick. Mine never had this.

I replaced the fluon bearings on my TSC-640 (seen in my avatar) with a ball bearing assembly I made myself. It now tracks at 2 grams equivalent force. The limiting factor on mine now seems to be the tonearm wires. When I tried 1.5 grams equivalent force (with a pickup so capable), the wires caused mistracking, but the trip mechanism worked. So I increased the force to 2 grams equivalent force.

Thats exactly right. I had to tighten my adjustment a little on mine. just when the arm came down on the record, the changer would make it's reset sound (click) and the arm would jerk forward scratching into the first 2 or 3 threads of the record.
This felt friction clutch gets rid of the too sloppy movement of the tonearm. The adjustment looks like a hex nut. You have to mess with it to get the arm not to be stiff or sloppy.