Repairing an Empire 980 Tonearm Cable - Looking For Help

tlarwa · « **on:** 29 Jul 2013, 03:33 pm »

I have a touchy connector on my Empire 980 tonearm cable, and would like to install new RCA connectors. Since these are rare as hen's teeth, I don't want to snip the old ones off until I know I'll be able to repair it properly. Has anyone repaired one of these before? By the way, this is the cable with a FEMALE connector that attaches to the arm. Apparently the later arms had a FEMALE connector and the cable was MALE.

Thanks for the help!

Tom

dB Cooper · « **Reply #1 on:** 29 Jul 2013, 04:11 pm »

Calling Wayner!

Wayner · « **Reply #2 on:** 29 Jul 2013, 06:27 pm »

You did say the 980 arm... That is the arm used on the 298 and it's very old now. Empire switched to the 990 on the 598 series.

I think making a new cable sucks. I've made 2 before and it's simply not very fun at all. In both cases, the plug is kind of proprietary to Empire, tho they look like an old style DIN 5 connector. On the 980 arm, I believe there are 5 pins that stick out of the tonearm bottom, where as the 990 arm has 5 hole receptacles.

One idea would be not to fix the cable at all and remake the connections all together. I think some .050 computer pin connectors stripped out of an old serial cable might fit the pins. If that is the case, you could make 5 mini cables and have them go to a 5 lug terminal board, that could be mounted in the base of your table. Then I would make a plate large enough to mount 2 RCAs and a ground wire terminal to the base from the outside and connect that stuff to the terminal strip too. Should be OK as AR did that with no noise issues. Unfortunately, this solution means drilling holes and mucking up the thing.

On a second thought, perhaps you could just solder the 5 computer pin connectors onto the end of your existing cable system and then simply slip each one on the pins on the tonearm. This means you have to keep track of the real estate, (which color went to which pin), so as not to have any wiring issues.

That's all I got for now.

Wayner

tlarwa · « **Reply #3 on:** 29 Jul 2013, 08:00 pm »

Wayner,

You are correct, the "plug" on the cable that attaches to the tonearm itself is female. That's not where the issue is. The issue is on the OTHER end of the cable, where the RCA plugs are. My question is whether I can snip off the old RCA plugs (with enough of the cable to eliminate what I think is a break in the wire) and attach new RCA connectors. I'm not sure what is in the cable going to the RCA connector itself. I assume it's a right channel and ground and left channel and ground? The 5th wire (from the 5th pin) goes to the ground wire (or so I assume). Make sense?

Tom

Wayner · « **Reply #4 on:** 29 Jul 2013, 08:08 pm »

Oh, that's even better. If you look at the RCA plugs, you will notice that there is a hole in the RCA pin on the end. This is where they would put the solder in to solder the wire to the center pin. My 598 jacks had a failure a couple of times. The solution was to heat the old soldering iron up, heat up the tip of the offending RCA and stick in some more solder. Don't position the jack with the pin up. This will invite melted solder to go up the pin inside and possibly short with the shield. Put the jack sideways, and try to use some .030 diameter solder, so that you can get some of it in the hole. I think thru the years, and with all the flexing that the cable gets, the solder point in the tip becomes work hardened and breaks, that is why I'm suggesting this as a repair.

If that fails, then you will have no choice but to put on new RCAs.

Yes, the 5th wire is ground, connected to chassis/tonearm.

I'd suggest using a meter to figure out which pin is which.

Let us know what happens.....

Wayner

orthobiz · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Jul 2013, 01:50 pm »

And post the occasional instructional picture!

Paul

tlarwa · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 Jul 2013, 12:56 am »

I will. I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow, so I won't get into this for a week or two. I may just snip the old RCA plugs and wire in new ones. I shouldn't encounter any surprises if I do this, should I?

tlarwa · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 Aug 2013, 12:43 am »

I ended up replacing the RCA connectors ... easy peasy

But, it turns out the real culprit was an almost broken solder joint on the cartridge sled. Now THAT was a bit tricky to fix ... those headshell wires are really tiny, and the spot you have to solder to isn't big either! But I managed to do it without melting anything, and all is good now!