RCA Victor player won't play entire LP

Hi,
I have a friend who has a RCA Victor Custom Series 711 player. It hadn't been used in a few years and we decided to play some LPs on it. However, apparently it will now only play 3/4 of an LP before skipping profusely. The needle arm refuses to go past a point, usually halfway through the 2nd last song. We could push the arm past that point, but it would simply spring back to that specific spot immediately afterwards.
We took the thing apart and discovered that there was a sliding piece of metal that was what was engaging the spring and preventing the arm from going past that one specific point. Though the sliding piece of metal could be pushed back, allowing the arm full motion, once the turntable started to spin the piece of metal eventually engaged with something and was pushed back out.

Obviously this piece of metal is there for a reason, and is supposed to engage as it does, I just suspect something in causing it to do it at the wrong time.

Anyone have any ideas?

Fisher

Time to get it serviced by a knowledgeable repair person..... right?
Usually the lubrication in those things dries out and turns to putty or glue, and needs flushing out and re-lubing.
This causes all sorts of weird things to happen.

Would you feel safe to drive a car that's decades old, and hasn't been maintained?
Oil changes, lube jobs, tires, etc....

There are three possibilities:

One is the trip mechanism. The trip slide is supposed to slide freely, and turn a part on the change cycle cam. If the part on the cam is gunked up, this happens. The trip parts are not supposed to be lubricated.

If someone tried to keep the power on while the automatic shutoff was trying to turn it off, this might have bent the trip slide.

The second is the change cycle slide. It may have come loose from the cam stud that drives it, or the mounting screws might be loose.

The third is the arm return lever. This swings the arm in to set it down at the beginning of the record. A stud on the change cycle slide is supposed to disengage it at the end of the cycle. If the stud is bent, the arm return lever won't fully disengage.

One time, someone complained that the arm on an RCA RP-215 would not play the entire record. I found the arm hitting the inner stop that limits its travel. Someone had adjusted the arm position (and setdown) fully an inch off, so the arm would set down on a 12" record already on the turntable. The problem is that it was using the 10" stop to do this. The 12" stop on that model doesn't operate unless the record is dropped from the spindle and hits the drop feeler.

I managed to get a picture of the workings with the offending sliding piece of metal highlighted.




Do you recognize which problem this part might cause?

That's not an RCA turntable. It's a Garrard. I was thinking of an entirely different turntable (The kind in the post "PVCR-84 (Pictures!)").

That is the trip slide, and you have a case of the Garrard Syndrome. Garrard used the wrong lubricant on the trip parts, and they get gunky after a few years.

The fix is easy:

- Get a tube of graphite lock lubricant, some light grease, some 95% isopropyl alcohol (drugstore), sewing machine oil (or 3 in 1 oil), and a piece of #0000 Aluminum Oxide sandpaper. If you can, get some Caig CaiKleen RBR rubber restorer.

- Turn the record changer right side up, and remove the spindle, the center clip on the turntable, and the turntable.

NOTE: On the early Garrard turntables, the spindle is also held by hooked springs below the plinth. Those must be unhooked before removing the spindle. (I later magnified the photos, and determined that you have the later version. The spindle just lifts out.)

- Remove the change cycle cam circlip, and then the cam gear itself.

- Notice carefully how the two trip parts and their circlip are located on the cam. Then remove the circlip and the two trip parts. Note that the gunked grease may try to keep the lower one from coming off.

- Use the alcohol to clean the gunked lubricant from the trip parts and the holes in the cam where the trip parts fit. You might need to use a piece of string soaked in alcohol to clean out the hole.

- Wrap the sandpaper around the smaller diameter shaft of the lower trip part. Pinch the sandpaper in the fingers of one hand while spinning the trip part with the other hand. The goal here is to SLIGHTLY reduce the diameter of the shaft. Garrard made the fit a bit too tight. The larger shaft does not need to be changed. Be careful to use a rotary motion on the shaft, or it might bind when reassembled. Also be careful to reduce the diameter along the entire length of the shaft.

- Test the fit of the shaft by placing the lower trip part back on the cam. Hold the cam vertically, and rotate it. See if the trip part swings back and forth by gravity as you turn the cam. It should swing freely until stopped by the slot in the cam.

- Clean the old grease from the gear teeth and the groove track in the change cycle cam. Relubricate these with new grease. Get plenty in the groove track (a nice coating), but don't fill the groove up, or you will have a mess to clean up later. Put just a light coating on the gear teeth. DO NOT get grease in the area where the trip parts go.

- Clean and relubricate the change cycle cam shaft (this held the cam on the plinth) and the cam follower stud or roller.

- Squirt some graphite (not too much) into the hole in the cam where the small shaft on the trip part goes.

- Reassemble the trip parts on the cam and replace the circlip. Squirt graphite where the trip parts contact the cam and each other. DO NOT oil or grease the trip parts.

- Lock the tonearm to its rest. The next step will cause a change cycle to take place, and you do not want the arm going astray.

- Place the cam on its shaft, with the gap in the gear teeth facing the turntable shaft. Do not force it down. Instead, rotate the cam COUNTERCLOCKWISE one complete turn, and the cam will drop onto the cam follower. This will also cause a change cycle to take place. Again stop with the gap in the gear teeth facing the turntable shaft.

- Put the circlip on the cam shaft to hold the cam in place.

- While you are in there, use the sewing machine oil to lubricate the turntable center bearing ball race and shaft, the motor shaft bearing (but not the stepped drive pulley), the center bearing on the idler wheel, and the pivots the idler jockey arms swivel on.

- Clean the rubber idler tire with the alcohol (and if you can get some, use some Caig CaiKleen RBR rubber restorer on the tire).

- Reassemble the turntable, turntable retainer clip, and spindle. Note that the ledge on the spindle faces the shaft of the record-balancing overarm.

You are totally correct. It is a Garrard table. Sorry for the misinformation. I was thrown off because it said RCA at the stereo volume controls in the unit and also because it says RCA on the bottom of the turntable (you can just make out the white letters in the picture).

Thanks for your prompt reply. I will try this and let you know how it goes.



Fisher