Garrard 6-200c strip down to fix jammed speed change

[hayerjoe]

hello everyone

Just got my second Garrard 6-200c deck. it's an often unloved turntable due to its lack of quality and the unimech one piece underdeck mechanism.

It's certainly not great, but it looks quite stylish if not a bit flimsy but the unimech mechanism is what puts most people off, you can't even remove the cam cycle wheel to give it a clean/lube without removing pretty much all the mech AND the tonearm! Only the speed changing mech and motor remains undistrurbed

But my 2nd 6-200 has the exact same problem as my first, which was an unmoveable speed change lever, which from my reading was not part on the unimech plate but hey I was bored so it was time to finally strip the unimech out and see what's going on.

Downloaded the manual and found the page about dismantling the subplate (see attached), and yes the tonearm has to come off. Girded my loins and went for it, and was pleasantly surprised that it only took me 15mins to get it out (I've done it subsequently and seriously it takes me just 5 mins now!). When out the whole mechanism is really quite easy to work on and I soon found the component that was causing the jam on both units, see photos. The arrows show above and below and it's that L shaped lever with the nub sticking up, the lever's pivot gets really jammed and just needs to be freed off using a solvent and lots of back-forth movement, takes a few mins then it's all good to be reassembled, but you may as well do the platter bearing and cycle cam stuff whilst it's all out. That lever is the only connection to the speed change mechanism still left in the chassis/body but clearly its important.

Ironically this lever was the only thing jammed everything else very free to move. Clearly a design fault and unfortunately right in the depths of the mech, but after 60 years of use we can't really hold that design failure against Garrard can we?

So in conclusion removing a unimech is really not so hard, there was a lot of thought put into its design and removal and I was quite impressed with the design and quality.

So if you have a stuck speed change lever on your 6-200c you will have to do all the above, no amount of WD40 or brute force will free it, in fact you will just break the plastic connecting lever (which had happened to mine)

Hope this helps someone out there

cheers
Joe

[Nickthedentist]

Very interesting info and write-up, Joe, thank you!

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Very interesting info and write-up, Joe, thank you!

Thanks Nick. One of the biggest concerns for people is removing the tonearm, everyone thinks this is a carefully adjusted bit of sensitively balanced equipment, but it's not, it's just bolted down with a screw and washer typically on a shaft with a flat section so it can only fit one way,. Once people get over this fear it opens up a lot more adventurous and useful deck maintenance. Took me a while to build up that confidence but now (after only a moments hesitation) I dive in and take it off when required!

[Nickthedentist]

That sounds very similar to the Autoslim variants (2025, SP25 etc.). Sometimes it helps to desolder the pickup leads from the tagstrip as well, then the whole thing can be put to one side, out of harm's way.

[Beobloke]

Interesting to read your experiences, Joe, as they tally with my own.

I was well versed on how bad the Uni-mech setup was and how difficult they were to service so, despite having something of a Garrard obsession for many years, I tended to give these models a wide berth.

Then, of course, the day came when one landed in my lap and was really in too nice a condition not to repair. I was rather surprised at how easily it all came apart and how it wasn't actually hideously complicated and unfathomable at all!

As I believe Abraham Lincoln once said - "Don't believe everything you read on the internet".

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

That sounds very similar to the Autoslim variants (2025, SP25 etc.). Sometimes it helps to desolder the pickup leads from the tagstrip as well, then the whole thing can be put to one side, out of harm's way.

Actually that's an important point I forgot to mention whilst encouraging tonearm removal, other than the fear of upsetting the tonearm geometry the other concern/blocker about tonearm removal is the cartridge leads. For me this is a non-issue as I have made a maintenance frame that allows me to securely cable-tie the tonearm in situ without de-soldering or stressing the leads (see photos) but without such a support it's quite tricky to stop the removed tonearm moving around and stressing the leads

[hayerjoe]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

Interesting to read your experiences, Joe, as they tally with my own.

I was well versed on how bad the Uni-mech setup was and how difficult they were to service so, despite having something of a Garrard obsession for many years, I tended to give these models a wide berth.

Then, of course, the day came when one landed in my lap and was really in too nice a condition not to repair. I was rather surprised at how easily it all came apart and how it wasn't actually hideously complicated and unfathomable at all!

As I believe Abraham Lincoln once said - "Don't believe everything you read on the internet".

That's now 2 PLUS votes for the unimech - maybe finally it's time has come!