Garrard 60B by Philarmonic Elettronica turntable repair

I've found a 70's turntable. Of course it was not working, so I decide to repair this piece of gear, mostly because I do not have a turntable, even if I have a few vinyl, and cause I would like to learn how a turntable works.

Mine it's a Philarmonic Elettronica turntable, based on the Garrard 60b mechanism. The core of the player is indeed the Garrard gear. Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company was British company that sold turntable and also mechanism used for other companies.

The Garrard 60B is a 3 speed auto-player with single play facility, it can runs at 33, 45 and 78 rpm.

My disc spins, but really slowly even at 45rpm. It needs to be cleaned. Also the auto-player mechanism does not works, and the stylus is completely broken.

The wood is in pretty good condition, I just remove the Garrard mechanism and clean it apart.

To clean the mechanism I use water and degreaser. Then I clean it all with water and let it dry. Once dried I disassemble the plate, it turns out that the gear in charge of the auto-player mechanism has a decent amount of grease that dried out during years, this lock the gear not allowing it to spin. I clean it all.

Then I use oil (5W 30 motor oil) and grease (lithium grease) to lubricate gears. I use grease, just a little, on just a few points, for the most of the parts I use oil, just a few drops.

Once assembled again, all work smooth.

Now it's time to fix the style. Original one as said was fully broken, the repair cartridge costs more than 15Eur, so I decided to look for a cheaper one. I've found a couple of cheap stylus for 3Eur shipped.
I've just to draw and print in PLA an adapter. Once done the stylus is mounted and worked well.

Now, I have also a spare old transformer around, so I decide to buy a phone preamplifier. Unluckily I've to change values for two resistore of the input voltage divider of this preamplifier, cause the new cartdridge has high output, and this leads to distortion if the gain is not reduced. I must admit that my AIWA amplifier phono preamplifier sounds better that the integrated board I've used, but that will be enough if I've to use with an amplifier without phono preamp. 

Then I wired all using a 4PDT switch with two position:

• position 1, preamplifier detached: L/R channel from stylus output goes straight on the output
• position 2, preamplifier attached: L/R channel from the stylus to the input of the preamplifier, then output of the preamplifier connected to the output cables

This way I can use the turntable even with an amplifier without phono input.

Also I've add a couple of led, on the bottom of the plate.

Last thing that I've build is the top enclosure, I didn't want to use plexiglass for the cover, so I've used wood. Then I've glued on top of the fabric, using vinylic glue, to stay in the same context :)

The result it's a fully working, vintage style turntable, equipped with new era cheap stylus and a phono preamplifier.

Notes

• read risk disclaimer
• excuse my bad english