Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Henry, On that last post, one would have to peer into the brain of a Victor engineer to find out why all Victor tts were not equipped with coreless motors. The motor in the TT101 is not only coreless vs the TT81, it also has considerably higher torque, I believe. Those two characteristics definitely would add to the cost of producing the motors, for sure. It is more costly to make a high-torque coreless motor than a cored motor of similar torque characteristics. Also, coreless motors are more prone to overheating under stress, so that had to be considered in their design. And finally, what was the actual price difference between TT81 and TT101?

I know for Kenwood, their KD500 (I think that's the model), which was one very giant step down from the L07D in all other ways, nevertheless also came with a coreless motor. Pioneer used coreless motors in their Exclusive line of tt's; do the upper end of the Pioneer line tt's also have coreless motors? Don't know. Technics seems not to have used coreless motors at all, but as you pointed out, their best motors have 24 poles and the DC power supply could further reduce cogging to a non-issue. Motors and their power supplies are an art form unto themselves.

"Living Dangerously - Vintage DD Turntables"

Sounds like a good premise for a new and suspenseful reality series on The Learning Channel featuring adventurous daredevil audiophiles that love to push the limits beyond the norm.

I have my TT101 back and running once again. The tech changed out 8 capacitors, and I saw that the old ones were quite leaky. I dodged a bullet on that one. Cost was $150 including labor, parts, and tax. I am going to have the TT81 done as well.

I will follow this entry immediately with the second part of this story.

Another thing: I decided to check out the motor bearing on my own. There is a large screw at the bottom of the motor (visible by dropping the sheet metal cover on the bottom. It is sealed with some kind of hardened clay like material. I carefully scraped and vacuumed away the sealant and then I opened the screw... lo and behold I saw a small steel bearing and it was sitting in about 1/2 ounce of oil!! Dirty oil at that. The screw itself is a cup and at the bottom of the cup is a plastic thrust plate.
I cleaned out the old oil with a soft cloth and let it drip out - but nothing really did, and re-filled it with Mobil 1 motor oil. I didn't re-seal it as I will get back in there in a year or so and do it again and the screw/cup holds all the oil it needs.

I wanted to be sure the spindle/motor spun smoothly once I had it all back together. But, I heard a rubbing sound when I turned the spindle (platter off). Oh crap. I had torn apart turntables before so I thought - here we go again.

There are six screws around the motor on top - three hold the motor in place and three hold the black steel top plate of the motor in place. I took all six out (they were surprisingly tight) and lifted the plate off - no more rubbing sound. I spun and listened as I reassembled it and if I over tightened any of the screws the rubbing returned. Once back together, rub free, I put the platter back on, hooked it all up and voila! It spins free and long without any sounds. I don't know if the tech tightened things up or what happened but I am thankful that it was such a simple fix.
It is playing Oscar Peterson in Russia right now and Peterson's flying fingers sound ever so beautiful.

Lew,
I think the Victor TT-101 originally sold for 165,000 Yen whereas the TT-81 sold for 75,000 Yen?
Big difference but the complexity of all the variable 'pitch' options plus the dual bi-directional servo sensors all contribute as well as the motor difference.