btw, I am assuming your TT is level,
check it as close to the arm base as possible. Then check on the platter, rotate, good in all directions? IOW, verify the arm is correctly mounted, plinth/platter all properly parralel/vertical to each other
breaking a wire trying to adjust anti-skate is very strange, had to be unsettling.
IF you cannot get your (any) arm to ’float’ using the blank disc/visual anti-skate method, there may be something errant going on with the arm’s pivot (or alignment to the plinth/platter as noted above)
Once the tiny silk covered litz wires out of the rear of my tonearm were just touching the edge of the rear vta/micrometer plate as the arm rotated, resisting free movement just a speck. I simply moved the wires a bit away from the plate (with a toothpick), problem gone.
Another time, bearings were too tight. Took a college try, arm out of base, loosened them, cleaned with alcohol/compressed air, snugged them up just so, problem solved. 1st and only time I messed with bearings, got lucky.