Hello,

After a busy summer, I finally got a chance to (try) listen to records on my 4004.  Much to my dismay, the carriage would move but the arm not set down on the record.  After pleading with the entity whose birthday we are about to celebrate, I moved the player to the workbench and removed the cover.  Everything looked OK.  I was able to manually move the shaft in and out of the solenoid but it would only click under electrical control.  Voltage measured ~1.5 when engaged but the tonearm did not come down.  To the forum... I read about the lube problems with the player but thought this moves freely enough, it couldn't be a lube problem.  Even so, I put a drop of 3 in 1 on the two shafts for the solenoid, the shaft for the damper, the pivot points and now it works again.

While I was in there I noticed two things.  One was that inside the two springs there was some fuzz.  I don't think it is supposed to be in there.  I was able to remove the fuzz from the larger spring.  I was afraid to remove it from the smaller one because it looks rather delicate.  The other thing was the wire coming out of the tone arm.  I didn't realize it was bare where it bends to go behind the carriage and where it comes out to go below the carriage.  The top part also appears to be rather frayed.  Is it supposed to be this way?

I am not sure how to post multiple photos so I will do them one at a time.  Here's the fuzz.

Here's both springs.

Here's the wire from the bottom of the tone arm somewhat frayed.

And here's the wire going below the carriage.

The fuz is normal and put there for a reason :) Although not essential I would put it back.

The wires are not freyed they are individualy coated you really don't want to mess with these. As long as they are not too tight or don't interfere with movement leave well alone!

Just one more thing 3in1 is ok for your bike but not the best for this application. Better with some good quality mineral oil like that made by singer for sewing machines.

Step1

3 in 1 is all I had.  I will get some sewing machine oil for the next time.  Care to give me the reason for the fuzz?  It is not going back. :)

I suspect it kills any resonance in the spring. Whether this is limited to the point of solenoid operation (to prevent the spring 'singing', or actually during the playing of records is someone elses guess. Of course there could be other reasons...