I’d been mixing for a few hours and then bam- one of my decks stops spinning suddenly. The start/stop buttons do nothing and the platter is offering a lot of resistance when I push it. I disconnect the power, remove the platter and discover that the spindle won’t move at all and motor is slightly hot to the touch.
The turntable in question is a Citronic PD-45 Ultima, a “super oem” turntable. I’ve been browsing the web for similar tales but I’ve come across nothing so far- does anyone have any idea what may have happened?
My current plan is to try and find a local repair shop but I’m not really looking forward to that… Sounds like it could get expensive rather quickly. I’ve swapped it out for a Technics 1210 mk2 for now so I can still mix at least.
Has the spindle dropped at all?
With the power disconnected and the platter off … pinch the spindle, try to lift it a couple of mm and see if it will rotate smoothly in both directions. It should give you an idea if the bearings have gone or if there’s something in there that shouldn’t be.
If it’s a super OEM, you can follow the viperfrank youtube vids to disassemble - the spindle lifts right out and looks like this:
It is LITERALLY a spindle. Not connected to ANYTHING. The motor is integrated into the platter, so the spindle is just to guide/locate the platter. You can unscrew the bootom and remove anything that is stopping it from spinning. Either that, or your berings will fall out… Either way, you’ll know what the problem is.
