Sota Star Sapphire suspension question

The lead shot goes under the armboard in a indent in the subchassis.

Three of the four corners of the floating sub-chassis have individual weights attached. The fourth corner carries the armboard/arm and contains the pocket underneath for the lead shot, to be added in an effort to balance all 4 corners level with the upper chassis. The underside of the sub-chassis uses four long bolts which may also be used to level the sub-chassis by screwing or un-screwing them individually.

It takes a bit of tweaking to make the ET2 arm work with the Sota's suspension. I had a buddy with that same set-up years ago. I am recalling his experience, not my personal experience so take this for what it is worth. The tonearm mass moving across the platter causes the level to shift. If I recall it correctly, you must level the platter (front to back) with the tonearm at the halfway point- the middle of the record so to speak. That way the platter is level minus a bit when the tonearm is at the edge of the record and level plus a bit when at the inner groove. Also, set the left side of the table (opposite the tonearm) just a bit lower than the right side of the table. All of that is after getting the correct amount of lead shot in the pocket. I think that you will find some cartridges will work better than others. Since the Sota is a floating chassis the arm will be putting some amount of side load on the cartridge's suspension.

I dont quite understand your comment about the tracking force and angle/weight being too heavy, so I cant comment on that. As for the vacuum pump, do you hear it running at all? What series of Sota Star do you have? Is it the one that has the aluminum face on the powersupply/pump or is it wood. If you open the pump enclosure, you will see the pump has a pressure switch plate. Sometimes that ges hung up, and just needs to be loosened. Or it could be the switch at the turntable end. Have you checked voltages and continunity between the pump and the table?. there is really little that can go wrong with this system and it is easy to fix once you isolate the problem.