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#1 401 rebuild

Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:11 pm
by Ant
Just finished this one for savvypaul, or 99.999% finished, bloody feet still haven't turned up...

ImageGarrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

In that shot it temporarily has a borrowed SPU on it to check that the alignment was spot on, which it is. It will have an SPU on it when it goes home. As the SPU is not mine, it was then taken straight back off and stored away snug in its box.
It has some temporary feet on it to make it useable until the proper ones finally turn up. or don't, in which case i will be mildly annoyed an have to make some

ImageGarrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Its a big bugger at about 23 1/2" wide, that monstrous ortofon ta210 arm is longer than most 12" arms in terms of spindle to pivot distance. They usually range somewhere around 290-295mm, that ortofon is 316.5 so is about an inch further out than the norm.

ImageGarrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

spinning 12" singles is fun, the Missus is collecting them at the moment, mostly 80s stuff. They don't half sound good though so I'm not complaining... Much....

ImageGarrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

I put the dynavector ultimo 20a in it once the SPU was put away. The arm needs alot of headshell weight to balance up, the headshell that comes with it is a 15g one, so all up with that cart in it its about 25g on the end of the arm. It does mean that medium to high compliance carts wont like it, I put the SL15 E LL (one of our wills favourites) in the headshell and got an immediate resonance out of it because the SL is high compliance at 24. the SPU is 8. A different bit of rubber was used in the assembly to make it useable with SME arms in 1968 when it was made. The Dynavector compliance is also listed as 8, its probably abit more but not a huge amount, id estimate about 12 ish so it works fine

ImageGarrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Its on some different feet right now to raise it up higher as the arm cable that comes with the ortofon is a stupid gargantuan cable that looks like it could string a suspension bridge. its not very bendy, about a half inch thick, and is cumbersome and awkward to use. Don't even think about using on a suspended subchassis deck, it would be utterly impossible to get it to work. In the earlier shots Id used a different cable. But other than the stupid cable the arm is rather nice.
The feet were actually made by Richard Higgins, they came with one of the very first lencos I had. That one became the first teardrop shaped 75 I did and is still going strong at mi dad's. It's been arou d the block that one...

It will be here for a little while until it gets collected, so ill get to enjoy it for a short time
on to the next one :mrgreen:

#2 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 4:25 pm
by IslandPink
Classic stuff !

#3 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 6:41 pm
by Ali Tait
Very nice Ant, great job as always.

#4 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2019 10:37 pm
by Mike H
Image

#5 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 11:55 pm
by Ant
Feet finally arrived midweek so it's complete now. I've also done some work on the motor unit as it was getting right on my tits.
There was a barely audible pitch variation, that once heard, can't be unheard. Watching the strobe, the markings were moving forward and backward erratically, but slowly. As if tracing a square. First going forward, then halting then moving backward then stopping and repeating. Some component hitting a tight spot in its rotation. There is a slight machining error on the strobe markings so it looks like it moves up and down. It was moving up when it stopped after going forward, and down after it went backwards. Which also made me look at components rotating at slow speeds as it was altering every half rotation. If it was the motor it would be fluctuating much faster.
So I cleaned all the drive surfaces with degreaser, lightly sanded the platter drive surface with 1200 grit wet and dry, re dressed the idler wheel, checked and lubed the idler bushes, and pulled the bearing. Cleaned, rebuilt, and re-oiled, it's pitch stable again, and the strobe isn't wandering around anymore. The thrust pad needs replacing though, there is a fairly large flat on the top so I've ordered another one from peak hifi. When I had mine I used a ball bearing one as a replacement, but I went with theirs as its as close as possible to what Garrard designed in the first place. I figure they did it for a reason.
Good job it's still here, if it was getting on my wick, chances are it would have got on Paul's nerves after a while too....

#6 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:54 am
by scotty38
Great work Ant, hoping the next one will be as good :wink: :wink: :wink:

#7 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:17 pm
by Mike H
Excellent! Image

#8 Re: 401 rebuild

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 4:05 pm
by Will
Wonderfull Ant..