Ronette Stereo Cartridge Pin Wiring

Anyone know the correct wiring for the Ronette barrel-style crystal stereo cartridge? I have four leads: Red, White, Green, Black. The cartridge, however, only shows numbers 1, 2 ,3, 4 by each pin rather than R, G, B, W. Is there a secret decoder somewhere that shows which number pin corresponds with which lead? I had found the info in the past, but now I can't locate it, even though I've Googled till I'm cross-eyed!

Thanks

I think the red and white typically go on the top pair of cartridge pins, and the green and black go on bottom.

Got the info on another list:

R+ to pin No. 1
R- to pin No. 2
L+ to pin No. 3
L- to pin No. 4

And on my VM 357 (Marketed as "Seabreeze" out of Canada), the colors were different from most:

R+ to pin No. 1 Red
R- to pin No. 2 Green
L+ to pin No. 3 White
L- to pin No. 4 Black

Worked great! For a few hours, anyway. The next time I turned it on, the volume was really low and garbled on both channels. Now I gotta figure out what's wrong with the 3-tube amplifier... Anyone know what the likely culprit could be?

Thanks anyway,

Check the muting switch. Playing with the wiring might have dislodged it.

I don't believe there is a muting switch on this model. It appears to be a cheaper model VM turntable. The cartridge wires go through the tonearm and back up beneath the turntable platter, connecting to the RCA plugs and on to the amplifier. If there is a muting switch, I can't find it.

It's a VM stereo portable with an automatic changer, nearly identical to the photo of model 357 shown on the VM website. However, this one is called a "Seabreeze" marketed out of Canada, but the changer is marked clearly "Voice of Music." The changer is slightly different then that shown. You have manually move the speed selector to neutral, pointing it to an "R" above 78. Very cheesy plastic mechanism under the speed selector. Another oddity is that it has a radio/phono switch, but yet there are no connections anywhere on the unit for a radio.

Someone on another list suggested:

"The power supply being common to both channels, I suppose I'd question the main power suppy electrolytic capacitors first (especially if
they're original.) No schematic to reference to here, so only other
'standard stab' stuff to offer, i.e. if it uses a selenium rectifier,
maybe it's gone high resistance (low B+) etc."

Unfortunately, I have no idea what those capacitors look like, nor where to get them. I can do most repairs to the turntable or replace a tube, but the electronics are a bit beyond my very basic knowledge. I could probably manage to replace them myself if someone could show me what they look like or how they might be marked. Might be able to find them myself looking at the schematic, but I don't know what to look for. I'd hate to take it to a shop for repair, as it would probably cost more than just buying another off eBay. I really like to get this one up and running myself if I can.

Gerry

Electrolytic capacitors are large metal cans. Sometimes the metal is inside a paper or plastic cover.

The key to identifying an electrolytic capacitor is that it has markings in tens or hundreds of microfarads, such as these examples:

10 MF
20 MFD
50 UFD
100 uFD
200 uF

On the larger ones, the cans are mounted to the metal chassis with tabs.

Electrolytic capacitors are polarized devices, with + and - terminals. Can electyrolytics often have several capacitors in the same can, and use the mounting tabs as the common - terminal.

The normal lifetime of an electrolytic capacitor is 15 to 20 years, although daily use can extend that time. They go bad quicker if not used.

Thanks for the info. After some Googleing, and looking at the unit, I located the problem capacitor. It is a wax-coated, wax-filled cardboard tube, with a wire out each end. It isn't the super-large one with the terminals on the bottom. It's marked with a + and - end, [I've forgotten now the exact markings] ?? MDC 100v or something like that. I know which one it is because when I removed the power section of the amp, there was a pool of wax on the base underneath, and I could see where it had leaked from. The way that all the components are jammed in there, it would be rather difficult for me to get in there and work on it. Therefore I've decided to take it to a local shop for repair. Hopefully, it won't cost that much to replace, since I've already located the problem part for them, and they are inexpensive capacitors. Thanks for all your help, guys.

Gerry