Arcam amp ...

Scrub that. Just found a complete service manual :-)

Arfa

Not motorized function sw prob I hope.

No, it's not. But why do you ask, I wonder ? I did one of those on an Alpha

9 just yesterday. It was no particular problem, as has been the case with a few I've done in the past.

Arfa

Alpha

a

Too much back-torque with all those multiway wafers -> stripped plastic gearbox cogs -> indexing/alignment problems

Funny,

I've done DOZENS of those Alps switches. They must be taken apart and cleaned, as spraying them does not seem to last, but I've never had a stripped gear drive.

Regards, Tim Schwartz Bristol Electronics

P.S. These switches were used in the Arcam Delta 290, Xeta 1 and Alpha

9 integrated amps, along with the Creek 5350 and some Yamaha products. I'd guess along with many others I don't know about.

with

There is a "weak link" , sprung loaded slotted axle support in the drive . Intermittently disengages motor if excessive back torque/jammed , then will mess up the tiny pinion if left in that state, clicking away to itself while the owner sleeps through it. Does not make as much noise as a Dyson slip clutch/ football rattle, you could not sleep through that.

Yes, that's exactly what I did. You remove the switch from the board, and unbend the three tags on the front. that allows you to withdraw the shaft from the wafers. There are index marks on the wafer rotors, and the shaft is flattened on two sides, so you can't get the indexing wrong, if you pay attention in the first place. The only one that you have to watch a bit, is the front-most wafer that controls the motor stop, because that one is driven differently via two tabs. The wafers themselves are easily 'sprung' from the frames, and the rotors easily unclip from the bodies - like a VCR mode switch. I have some very very fine wet and dry paper - something like

1000 grade - and I use a tiny piece held in needle point tweezers to burnish the contact pads and central ring back to bright metal. I clean the rotating contacts with a pencil rubber, and re-tension them. Finally, I add in a drop of high quality switch cleaner / lubricant, before clipping the rotor back in. The individual wafers can then be clipped back into the frame, and the index marks used to realign them, before refitting the shaft. They run like silk after they have been thus refurbished, and are electrically silent. I have never had any mechanical problems caused as a result of doing this, nor have I ever had one bounce. I haven't done as many as Tim, but probably still twenty or more, over the years.

Arfa

? 9

is

is

burnish

rotating

drop

like

nor

While on contact cleaning, not Arcam. This week a problem with an awkward to replace, odd footprint, relay. Clear plastic outer. Needle heated with soldering iron to melt, not drill, into the cover over the contact gap and another on the side. Then .45mm (wire core) diameter TeePee interdental toothbrush will pass through the needle hole. The miniature "bootle brush" bristles open out inside the contact gap and a side entry needle forces against the to-fro and sideways cleaning of the brush. Neat Blob of hotmelt glue over the holes after