Rega's arm lifting mechanism

After having owned a rega p3 with the rb300 and having sold it, I recently bought a rega deck with the rb250. Like on the rb300 I noticed that when I lift the arm's finger lever the plastic banana shaped arm support rises up but slides slightly sideways , when I raise it down it slides back into position. When I keep the lever lifted I sense looseness on the arm support, it moves from side to side. When the lever is pulled down the plastic support is stiff. I tried tightening the allen screw but no luck, it just seems that the arm was made this way. The quality of these tonearms is superb but to me this is somewhat of a flaw. Is this the case with all rega tonearms?

 

Sorry, I don't know. But I have a related question:

My Rega arm lift works fine at the beginning of a record but it is tilted slightly so that at the end of a record it won't lift the arm at all. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggested fix? I have a Rega P3.

 

Mine seems a bit sticky when resting it on the lp.It eventually goes down but it does have a bit of a pause to it.

 

while we're all asking.......

how can i get my lifter support to sit a little higher? the stylus barely clears 180g records when lifting. and I see that the support that lifts the arm has a tiny hexagonal screw in it, but it's too small for any alan-key (<in case people aren't familiar with the term 'alan' key)

 

Take a look at the arm lift at the base, the actual curve-shaped thing. Is it bent? It should be at the same hight contact-wize. You certainly shouldn't have a bent arm! Does your cart hang low already (meaning, at the beginning of the record with the cue up, does it barely touch the rim at the record edge, or does it hang 1/4" high?

 

...... does it wobble to and fro

 

It is not bent, exactly, but it is higher on one side than on the other. It droops. It is at least 1/4" high at the record edge, but does not quite clear it at all near the spindle. If I engage the arm right as a record ends, it typically will stop the needle -- as long as it hasn't gotten too close to the center hole!

Clearly something is wrong here. I guess my question is whether it is fixable.

 

I would also like to know about this. I have the RB600 tonearm, and the manual only mentions that if you need the tonearm lift to go higher, to ask your dealer to do it for you...

 

You need the right size alan key. I had to do that with my P2. I raised it too much but at least it clears the records now.

Edit: Found the info...

"You need a 1.2 mm allen key.* You probably noticed the set screw on the horizontal portion of the cueing device.* You just loosen the screw and raise the bar as much as you need and then retighten.* Sometimes it takes a few passes to get it just right."

Pat

 

right on , just unscrew lift and hold it in the position you want to have it in and screw it down again.
Coming back to my original post, anyone experience this with the rb250??

 

I've had the same problem since I bought my P3. I had the motor upgraded and when it came back the arm still did the same thing so I assumed it was happening because of the design. Never did get around to finding out why.

In a way though I'm pleased its not just me!

Eddie

 

Thanks Pat!

 

Glad I could help.

I haven't noticed any issues with my arm support.

Pat

 

Funniest comment I have seen in a long time.

 

Can someone post a step by step for setting the lift/lower mechanism to the right height. Mine will not raise high enough to clear the stylus from the record. I unscrewed the hex screw at the vertical part of the shaft and used my hand to pull up while tightening the screw back into place, but the cueing mechanism just dropped back to its normal height. Is there a certain position the arm should be at while attempting to do this or something?

 

IIRC, when I did this it took a few tries to get it set. Watch you don't strip it.
Put the lifter in the down position.

 

There's a very small hex setscrew that holds the lift mechanism assembly in position. You can loosen it -- but don't remove it -- and move the whole unit upwards. The stylus should clear the record by at least 3/16" with the lift mechanism up.

 

The cueing housing on the older arms seemed strudier, but as you say always landed a little off from where you lower from. Fiddling with the suggested allen key adjustment can mostly alleviate this. The newer arms have more plastic on the cueing device and move to and fro when raised or lowered, especially when brand new, though this dissipates some with use.

 

I still can't seem to get this to work right. First I loosened the screw at the base of the cueing mechanism platform (the one right in the middle of the picture). Then with the arm lowered I used one hand to manually raise the platform and the other to tighten the screw. After that the platform drops to its lowered position, but still when I raise the arm it doesn't raise the cueing platform any higher. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

 

Is there a set screw that holds the whole mechanism in its supportive bracket?

 

You have to loosen the screw pull the lift upwards and screw it back in tightly. Be careful not to force the screw you can damage it and/or widen the hole , that what hapened to me , I had to glue instant glue ( krayze glue ) on the screw in order to keep it into place...I just can't higher or lower the lift anymore but for me its ok I have it in the position I want.

 

You're doing it right. Try doing it with the arm in the rest, not on the lifter bar.

 

Thanks for the help guys. Got it working now.