Technics SL-5 part 9 - Bonus Round

The very last thing to do is to check that it plays a record correctly from start to finish, both for 33 1/3 and 45's. I am happy to report that it all works correctly. Unit sounds good, and the cartridge is in good condition.
That concludes this series. I hope it is helpful for keeping your SL-5 running for many years to come.

[@felix_da_katze]

Well just when I thought this was done, another problem popped up. Yes, there will be a part 10. Hopefully a minor issue, and you'll see why this wasn't caught earlier and only showed up as I've been playing records over the last week. Stay tuned!

[@felix_da_katze]

Well this is annoying. I had a short video and a few images of the problem, but I can't seem to find them. Briefly, the issue was that the plastics in the record size detector arm had cracked, and it was moving up above the level of the record, meaning the system falsely detected a single and moved the arm in too far, and set speed to 45rpm. Repaired, and all is working properly again.

[@Trojan0304]

Thanks for repair series. Just got rare vertical SL-V5😊

[@felix_da_katze]

Nice! I haven't seen one for sale yet...somewhat envious!

[@anthonyperez2467]

New to record players, any idea where i hook up the ground wire on this specific turntable?

[@felix_da_katze]

There is a round hole where the ground wire plugs in, and you normally have a ground screw on the back of your amp to connect the other end. You could just jam a thick enough multistrand wire in there, if you can't find the right plug end, or attach it via some solder or something. But the case of the record player is plastic, so it must be attached to that grounding point. I've seen some people say you can attach the ground to the outer of one of the RCA jacks to simplify things, but that did not work when I tried it. I'm sure the engineers thought of it when they designed it, and they wouldn't have done anything unnecessary.

[@ANDRESXPC74]

one question the rope cord tonearm is broken. who is the best replacement for the cord?? thanks

[@felix_da_katze]

There is some stuff called tuner cord or dial cord - used in radios to move the station indicator needle. That might be the closest match and the easiest to search for online. You want to try to match the thickness as closely as possible, but as long as it doesn't foul on anything you should be ok. Key parameters are that it doesn't stretch and has decent tensile strength.

[@YouTube4Rudy]

Well, in the past I've own a SL-5 and SL-10. I liked the SL-10 better, but always dreamed of getting a SL-15. Too bad they're too expensive for me. I'm thinking of picking up a SL-J22, however. Would it be safe to say that your SL-5 series will work for these other linear Technics turntables? Thanks much!

[@felix_da_katze]

There will be some similarities in the way the sled mechanism works, and also how it fails. Bank on broken plastics, and if you can understand how they are meant to operate and repair the plastic, you might be most of the way there. Most of the Technics gear I've touched has been remarkably robust in terms of ICs.
As to the electronics, most noticeable differences will be in the system that detects tracks found on some. There's a couple of basket cases for sale with that feature, and I am in 2 minds whether to buy one and see if I can fix it and make a new set of videos.