Phonoland

I have one nice 1218 and one that was cannabilized by a repairman before the guy skipped town with my marantz receiver. The 1218 he left is only good for parts or a total rebuild at this point. The operating 1218 I also own has what appears to be a bad contact plate at the plug in head. My other 1218 has a much better looking contact plate on it. The bad plate looks as if the contact plates are pushed in and are very dirty. Not wanting to do too much I did try some alcohol and a swab to try and clean them off, but it did not help much. I am only getting a partial pickup on one speaker feed. The cartridge and needle are new. The feed that is weak is also the worst looking contact point on the contact plate.

I see the wires go from the contact plat down under the chassis. Can I pull the wires and contact plate as a complete unit off my old 1218, without removing the arm, and replace the bad contact plate with it?

Buy yourself some TarnX to remove the tarnish from the silver-plated contacts.
Use a CueTip and gently rub till shiny, then rinse with alcohol.
Alcohol alone won't do the job, waste of time.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

Being an electrician I have used 'contact cleaner' on larger electrical copper contacts but didn't want to try that on what might be a smaller and more delicate surface.