The TT runs smoothly and silently in the clockwise direction but has a loud clunk about every second in the opposite direction. It does not appear to hesitate as the noise is heard. It indexes accurately in both directions and is as clean as I can see.
Any suggestions?
73
Bruce in the Peg
Bruce,
There is probably something lodged in the gears that move along the toothed track inside the pit. On my turntable, I occasionally get a piece of ballast in the pit, If the debris is on the toothed track, the gears will pick it up like a vacuum.
If you remove the bridge track and turn it upside down in your hand, yuou can examine the gears for debris. Sometimes the debris is visible and sometimes it isn't. You can turn the gears with your fingers. If the gears are binding to the touch, there is debris caught up in the gears.
It is possible to free up the debris by removing the screw(s) that hold the gear assembly in place. I use a small screwdriver or the tip of an Exacto knife to free up the debris.
If this is your problem, you want to fix it. It cannot be good for the gears. When it happens to me, I notice not only the loud clunk, but there is a noticeable bump in the movement of the turntable.
Has this only recently been happening, or has it occurred since you first installed the turntable?
Rich
Alton Junction
It would be useful to locate, or pinpoint, the sound's origin. For example, if the gears turn out to be clear, and a shaft turning them itsn't somehow binding in one direction, or it isn't slightly bend causing a bind in only one direction of rotation, then I wonder if the problem isn't in the hub. There are several spring-blade wipers that wipe concentric metal rings under the bridge. It may be that one of the blades is tilted a bit so that one edge of it is raised slightly. In one direction, the leading edge would be lower and innocuous, acting like a cam and sliding freely. In the other direction, the leading edge would be raised, somewhat sharp as a stamped blade would be, and continually catching on something in the ring, or its surrounding insulator.
I had to partially disassemble my bridge drive mechanism three years ago because the performance began to slip too much for my liking. I found the works, after I removed the cover from one end, to be amazingly confounded by dog hairs and bits of ground foam. I was quite disappointed because I had felt I had been quite meticulous about keeping the pit floor and lip vacuumed regularly. Pretty much every time before I moved the bridge.
Crandell