PVCR-84 (Pictures!)

Well I replaced the screw, which balanced the turntable firmly to the wood base, and it works now, haha. I suppose it being on an uneven slant it couldn't properly align itself, and it just was sluggish. Since the screw, it starts up fine, spins great, tonearm works.

The only issue now is despite the needle hitting the vinyl as it should, the speakers won't produce any the sound from it. I'm guessing despite it's good look, maybe my cartridge is dead? Or bad wiring?

The changer should NOT be tightly secured to the wood. it should be floating on four springs spaced around the edge of the plinth. Note that if one of the springs is missing, the changer tilts, and the cycling slide hits the wood, causing the stalling.

Record-changer wrote:The changer should NOT be tightly secured to the wood. it should be floating on three springs spaced around the edge of the plinth. Note that if one of the springs is missing, the changer tilts, and the cycling slide hits the wood, causing the stalling.

Hrm, a bit of that I didn't quite catch. "Plinth"? Do you have any diagram of the turntable or know where exactly the springs should be so I can check?

You loaded it correctly.

I see the problem from the video. The record is dropping too soon. Thus means that the record pusher is being pushed too soon and too far, causing it to jam on the spindle. The drive is working too hard, trying to bend the record dropping parts. This is what is causing the slowdown of the turntable.

A tab on the cycling slide pushes a rocker arm, which moves the end of the record pusher at the bottom of the spindle. The record should drop just as the arm reaches the maximum swing out position - not before. I can think of several places where something could be wrong:

1. The rocker arm was installed upside down or backwards. There is a special short straight surface on the end without the rectangular hole, The tab on the cycling slide is supposed to push this surface.

2. The end of the record pusher is supposed to stick down into a rectangular hole in the rocker arm. If it is on one side of the arm instead of in the hole, the record drops too soon.

3. The plate that mounts the rocker arm may be wrongly located on its holder (which also mounts the spindle).

4. The tab on the cycling slide might be bent It should be perpendicular to the slide in both directions..

5. The record pusher may be bent. This is unlikely.

The plinth is the main chassis (the rectangular light brown part with 4 rounded corners that everything else is mounted to). There are 4 conical coil springs spaced around the edge of the bottom side of the plinth. These float the changer, to isolate it from floor and room vibrations.

I just acquired an RCA PVCR-84 myself. It is in great condition. The am/fm radio works great. The turntable needs some work though. The needle was broken off of the phono cart so I ordered a new RCA 200-9 phono cart from VM-audio enthusiasts (waiting for it to arrive).



I am working on building a connector for the open tape input in the back. I moved the tuner input connector over to the tape slot and it worked fine if I changed the input knob to tape. I then spliced an old stereo cable for an ipod and connected the left and right wires to the outside pins of the tape input. It worked! I was able to play music from my iphone. The wires wouldn't stay though so I need to figure out a connector that I can use. I am going to go to an RC hobby shop tomorrow to see if I can find something that will work.



Regardless of what input I have selected, I do hear a small bit of static every 10s or so. I hear the static regardless of the volume level. It isn't too bad, but I don't know what could be the cause. Any thoughts?

Static is usually the result of deteriorated parts and corrosion in the amp after 50 years.
A thorough restoration is mandatory before a transformer is destroyed by stress due to the deterioration.
Unplug it, and have service done before you smell smoke.
By then it's too late.

I've had several of these RCA's come in the shop with fried amps - the owners ALL said it worked fine, sure it did.
Yet they simply cannot understand that something 50 years old should not be trusted to last long "as is".

Ditto what Matt said. That static could be caused by a breakdown of the dielectrics in a capacitor causing AC leakage or a momentary short. This should be rebuilt before you use it or you may end up with a smoking pile of junk. Even if the static is caused by the connections or the Ipod the fact remains that certain components are out of spec by this time and need to be replace. Check out the video at the top of the forum page " Mandatory Viewing".