Please Help T3F problems

@scotchboy said:

My preference is to fix the T3F. I know it sounds fantastic on my system

You’ve done remarkably well to keep a T3F in service all these years. As I recall back around the mid 80's when Harry Pearson had the Goldmund tables in house at Sea Cliff the T3F was a constant source of frustration with issues similar to what you describe.

It's been a long time since I thought about the T3F. Back in 1980 or so it was the turntable to buy at Sound Components in Miami where I worked. The turntable is ace except for one problem, the tonearm. We had a lot of trouble with them doing odd things like the OP mentions but it's major downfall from a sonic point of view was or is that the tonearm's chassis rings. If you take the table into an adjoining room it sounds much better. It is a beautiful turntable. Removing the arm is going to leave scars and holes on the surface. What I would do is make a thin tonearm board out of a rosewood and cover that side of the table with it than drill the hole for the new arm. A Schroder CB would be perfect and it only requires a 1"hole. The cord comes out underneath so it will not interfere with the dust cover. The look of the arm matches the table. 

Thanks for the input guys

Mijo, The "T3F" refers to the Rabco-like tonearm that was marketed by Goldmund, originally I think with their massive Reference TT, which was then the most expensive TT/tonearm combo available, at least on this side of the Atlantic and Pacific.  I don't think the OP has a Goldmund TT.  And he wants to make his T3F work; he's apparently not interested in a replacement tonearm. Did you actually find the Reference TT to be problematic?  HP loved it for years.

The TT I have is the Goldmund Studio.