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Oops, I decided to try to improve the performance of the Garrard tonearm on my Garrard 4HF table.Luckily, I have one I purchased for spares, so I decided to try dismantling it first. This proved to be a good idea :-) It looked simple, I unsoldered the wires, and removed the single clamp-on piece of mechanism (used for the auto-stop)
Then I removed the circlip holding the tonarm's pivot shaft, and as soon as I moved the shaft up, all the ball-bearings fell out !!! The sit in a quarter race at the top, and are only held in by the shaft itself and the spacing washers on top of them.
So, questions to the guys with some experience in this area.
Are they normally held in place by light grease during re-assembly, or do you have to partially insert the shaft drop in the ball bearings, while carefully holding it horizontal until you slide the shaft all the way in and secure it with the circlip? Actually, are small ball-bearings like this normally oiled or greased?
If I need more ball-bearings, are they procurable? I haven't measured them, but they are only a millimetre or so in diameter.
...and lastly, to make me feel better, who else has lost their bearings this way?
Follow Ups:
I did the same thing with my syntec s 220. RAAAAAGE!!!!!!Anyway, I don't know how directly the syntec translates to yours, but the process of replacing them was straightforward and very very time consuming. Expect a lot of almost getting it and it all falls apart. If you are Catholic you will require some extra time at confession concerning all the profanity that is about to come out of your mouth. The good news is just be patient, it is doable. Just hack away at it and you'll get it eventually. It took me a couple hours I think. What a pain!!!
Note of caution: be careful to not put too much or too little pressure on the bearings once you've reassembled it. This is another pain in ass aspect of the project. If the connection is too tight and the bearings are under too much pressuer, you'll get chatter and friction. You'll also get chatter if the bearings are too loose and are allowed to rattle around. I don't know if there is a quantitative way to estimate the proper pressure to apply. I simply used trial and error. Get everything assembled and rotate the hinge. You should be able to feel if there seems to be too much or too little pressure. Just keep toying with it until you get the freeest (is that a real word?) motion with the least play. Maybe someone has a better solution. It worked fine for me. As I recall, the right amount if pressure was supplied by gravity. I got everything assembled, applied no more or less pressure than the structure simply supporting itself under gravity and carefully fastend everything in place. That seemed to be just right.
One other suggestion: Go ahead and get the replacement bearings Tubes suggested. I should have done that. I don't want to go through the process of doing this again to replace the bearings. Once in a lifetime is enough. If you do this, be sure to give us a review. Maybe I should go ahead and do it anyway. I promise that if you don't do it now, you will never do it.
I think you are right about the amount of pressure because, with the Garrard, it is only gravity the provides any pressure. When assembled, there is a tiny amount of vertical play. You can lift the tonearm until the circlip on the shaft hits at the bottom, and a tiny amount of clearance let me insert the tip of a hypodermic needle to 'inject' some light oil (this was when I first got the 4HF table)I need to measure those tiny balls now, and try to figure out how many I need. :-)
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Now go to Boca Bearings and get silicone nitride balls of the same size and plop them in. I think you will get a surprise you never expected.Think SME IV and V.
Thanks for the name of a source. Do you know if they ship overseas?Also, I notice they say -
"A new material suitable for applications where high loads, high speeds and extreme temperatures are factors. Long life and the need for minimum lubrication makes this material perfect for harsh conditions. Si3N4 is anti-magnetic. Maximum useful temperature is 2552°F."A tone arm doesn't really fit that description, it's low load, low speed, room temperature. :-) Still, they should do the job.
What do the different grades of balls mean - degree of roundness?perhaps?
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