Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Doron, I agree with the others, it's probably best not to run the motor without the platter installed. It's definitely taboo for nearly all other DD turntables, for sure. However, I faintly remember that Bill Thalmann told me that where the TT101 is concerned, you can get away with it, because of how the circuit works. Even with that small qualifier, why worry about platter-less operation, if your TT101 works fine with the platter installed? If you follow Banquo's advice on how to raise up your platter by a few mm, via adjusting that screw below the bearing housing, you should be able to cure the scraping problem as well. Now, replace all electrolytic capacitors.

Hello and thank you all!!!
Much appreciate your help!
1. Re the platter/spindle height adjustment screw, do you need to remove the black upper motor cover to access this screw?
2. Any chance you could send a photo showing it? (doronor3 at gmail)
3. In addition without the platter installed, is there an allowable, slight (~1/16") axial movement of the spindle/shaft?
In other words, if I pull the spindle upwards by hand, it rises about 1/16" from its normal rest position.
Is this normal or is it an indication of excessive axial float?

Thank you kindly!

Doron

Ok, found it!!! (The spindle height adjustment screw).
Removed the bottom black cage and it it's a brass large flat screw at the bottom.
Once I screwed it in slightly, the shaft went forward and the clearance/axial float of the spindle/shaft was reduced a bit. It still exists but just smaller. Is this normal?

The platter now rotates freely now (no scraping) and the motor locks on both speeds readily.

Thank you so much!!!

Doron

Once I screwed it in slightly, the shaft went forward and the clearance/axial float of the spindle/shaft was reduced a bit. It still exists but just smaller. Is this normal?

Mine does that.

The platter now rotates freely now (no scraping) and the motor locks on both speeds readily.

Then you're good as gold. Congratulations and enjoy....but as Lew says, think about replacing capacitors.

Thanks for the wonderful advice, guys!!!
I cannot thank you enough.
You just saved me a huge heartache of having to ship this unit back to UPS and get a full refund when I had much better plans for this baby...
I was a happy Oracle Delphi Mk II owner until two weeks ago. Had it installed and its suspension correctly tuned (a royal pain) with numerous arms and cartridges in the last 5 years:
Carts: DV 17D3, Benz Wood SM, SAE 1000 E and LT, Adcom Cross-Coil (another Coral based cartridge), Shinon Red Boron and even EMT JSD-5 Gold and the currently installed EMT HSD-6. My previous arm was Alphason Xenon MCS and now I am working with a Zeta which I absolutely love.
Long story short, always wanted to try a properly CLD plinth with a JVC DD motor so I got a JVC TT-71 motor and with the great woodworking skills of a dear friend built a 50 lbs, 9" tall, birch plywood plinth with solid ebony arm board for the TT-71/Zeta/EMT HSD-6. Basically I have two Zeta arms so I moved the one from the Oracle (with its added counter weights so the weight is closer to the gimballed bearing - great tweak btw) to the JVC plinth. I can call this now: "removable tonearm" as a twist on "removable head-shell":-). This JVC T-71 in its new plinth, walked all over my trusty Oracle. It was bold, muscular, dynamic, full sounding and much smoother, all at the same time. Macro dynamics were explosive compared to the Oracle. The only area where the Oracle did slightly better was separation of instruments and micro-dynamics like textures retrieval (like the asperities of a cello’s bow grinding on the strings, etc).
Adding some weights on top of the JVC plinth improved the micro-dynamics retrieval so we have concluded that with mass loading its go big or go home and with the idea of a friend, decided to build a crazy plinth: 36" tall, solid baltic birch plywood, cladded with a thinner sheets of plywood for added weight and for better aesthetics. It sits on my basement's concrete floor with the help of 3 massive, 5/8" (!) steel spikes that look like M61/Vulcan rotary cannon ammunition:-)
This baby was now weighing ~280 lbs and is basically a console, very similar in concept to the Denon DP-308F recording/mastering professional TT.
Even without the TT-101 in there yet, it is the best sounding TT I have ever heard, regardless of price and I heard many, 5 figure TT's like Well Tempered, various VPI’s, Avid Volvere, Scheu, Revolver, Oracle Mk V, fully loaded Linn LP12, Jean Nantais Lenco reference and even the Kuzma Stabi XL4 with air-liner air bearing tangential tonearm and Dynavecor XV-1 cart, which is the closest to it in sound, judging from my memory (only the Kuzma is a $40K TT before the arm and cartridge...)
It has been a dream come true for me and I can only imagine what the TT-101 will bring to the table (pun intended).

Thanks again for the invaluable pieces of advice!

Re the capacitors: removing the cage from the TT-101 reveals two stories of electronic components…many capacitors. Which ones do you replace? All of them? Do they need to be the same or any similar specs of capacitance and voltage will do?

Thanks again!

Doron