It won’t spin. Or it will, but when it feels like it, which is weird. Sometimes I jiggle it and then it decides it wants to spin. I made sure the belt is attatched - perhaps the belt is too loose, or I need to oil something? When I lift the belt the little motor thingy spins just fine, but when I attatch the belt it stops. Help!
A loose belt would allow the motor to spin. It sounds like something is wrong with the motor or there is a bad connection in the circuit.
What’s wrong with it? It’s a record player. 
But wouldn’t the motor not spin at all if there was a bad connection? It spins fine when the belt is not attatched. 
If it only stops spinning when the belt is moved into place, then the motor is likely going bad. A lesser probable cause is the turntable is not as free spinning as it should be. The internals of the motor are more likely to be wearing out.
Belts loosen with age and become hard and glossy. In the case of the belt going bad the motor would turn and the belt not move.
I have no idea how much giggling you do when attaching the belt, so I mentioned a lose connection. You would know if you were doing something like that better than I.
Unless it is a brushless motor it could be worn out brushes. Otherwise it lookd like a worn out motor, the jiggling gives it enough momentum to start turning.
Re: the loose belt syndrome. My record deck is very ancient (a Sonab 75S) and I had a loose belt problem. Went to buy a new one but none was immediately available. The guy in the hifi store advised dropping it into a cup of very hot water and leaving it for five minutes. Worked a treat and is still going (though not often) six years on.
Look in Goodwill. They have a lot of units show up. I picked up a direct drive high end unit for $20. The metal turn table must weigh 5 pounds, and it has built in timing sights for adjusting the speed.
Hooting, braying, and guffawing might be a problem. Giggling shouldn’t cause any damage unless the anti-humor sensors are disabled.
The shaking while giggling may be a problem.
Jiggling may occur when giggling.
Well, it depends on how drunk I am at the time.
I guess I’ll try the hot water thing, and if it still doesn’t work I suppose I’ll have to get it repaired. I just know it’s going to cost more to repair it than what I paid for it :smack: (I got it used for $25).
In that case I’d go with the advice given by Harmonious Discord. It makes sense!
You never know, you might pick up a Transcriptor
Meaning what?
Gee, I dunno, Walloon, maybe it was a joke based upon the inferiority of the vinyl LP as an audio recording medium, hmm?
It depends upon how it is controlled.
If its just a plain old ac motor, then a slipping belt is the most likely culprit, though the bearing bushes could be gone allowing the rotor to skim inside the cage. This isn’t going to be worth the replacement of the bearing bushes unless you have something very collectable.
If its the sort with an idler wheel then anything from a tight bearing to a worn out centre to worn down rubber could be at fault - not hard to find but getting the spares may be fun.
If it’s a dc motor that is not sophisticated, then the same could apply, but add to that brushes (note nothing to do with bushes in case you thnik I did a typo) - effectively the motor is worn out unless you are very handy.
It could be that something in the speed control system has failed, or a dry joint in the electronics - this would also be a dc motor (there are a few a.c speed controlled turntables out there such as Bang & Olufsen BG 8000)
Here you would be looking at something like a tachdisc or magnetic pick up problem - dirt or misalignment.
You could have something such as the electrolytic capacitors that have dried out over the years, the values of them can change unnoticed until one day you can’t get the turntable to run up to the right speed. These can be repleced easily enough by someone who knows what to do with a soldering iron.
I’d go for the belt first, then the motor, the symptoms do sound belt or motor bush bearing related.
Ooh, I remember those! Have you tried changing the ink ribbon?
…what?
It might just be the belt. After this many years, it may have gone slack as the rubber begins to break down, in which case the platter would rotate inconsistently. If it turns out that this is the case, replacement belts are real cheap.
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I’ll try getting a new belt. I was wondering if there’s something wrong with the gears that turn the table, because the spinning thingy (the motor?) is spinning just fine when I turn it on. And the gears aren’t stuck or anything, because when I spin the table by hand it spins fine as well. I don’t know how to explain it quite well, but it’s like the spinning of the motor is not being properly transferred to the gears. I guess it’s the belt that does this function, so hopefully getting a new belt will solve the problem.