Hi all,

I have an old Sharp AM/FM receiver with an 8-track player. Made
in Japan ca. 1975 or something. It had a BSR turntable which was
broken. I removed the seized turntable, cleaned the whole unit,
sprayed all the pots, replaced the three little 6V bulbs behind
the black/green tuner window, and it is fabulous. It's built
like a tank and weighs a ton. The pots feel like military grade
stuff. The function switches are simply unbelievable. The front
panel is white (OK, bone now) with black controls, the box is
all wood with the then-standard "vinyl wood veneer".

I have a spare turntable which works perfectly. I intended to
connect it to the phono preamp of this receiver. I did, but I am
not getting sound. I am getting low-frequency pink noise, but no
audio signal. What is even stranger is that I hear one of the
channels "pop" when I dis/connect ONE of the two RCA audio
cables going into the phono preamp of the receiver. I tested all
the cables after extending them, and they are OK (see below).

I tried connecting the turntable signal to the line input, and
it DOES work. Of course, the signal is VERY low, but you CAN
hear the LP playing with the volume full up. So either I DID
somehow **** up the audio cable assembly (it tests OK though!)
or the phono preamp is partially or totally NG, in which case
there is probably nothing that can be done.

The line inputs can be used for a CD/DVD player, the receiver
works as a 4-speaker unit or 2 main/2 remote speakers, and it
sounds great. AM and line in are loud as hell, FM volume is
about 30% of that, but still usable.

Does anyone have any idea what I should do first? I want to
determine exactly /what/ in the chain from the *turntable audio
cables/cable extensions/original RCA plugs and cable/circuit
board* is NG.

(The phonograph audio cables were only long enough to reach the
bottom of the turntable, which was 3 inches above the main
circuit board, now they have to reach to the back and out of the
unit, so I had to add about 8 inches of cable - but I tested the
cables, both channels, live /and/ ground, and I made NO mistakes
- everything was connected/soldered correctly.

If the phono preamp is dead, it's dead. The unit is still a
/great/ AM (and decent FM) receiver and line-in amplifier,
handles TWO sets of stereo speakers, and it will outlast all of
us. I have yet to find an 8-track cartridge, but the mechanism
and all the belts seem fine. Plus I don't think anyone needs an
8-track deck, while /quite/ a few people might enjoy having a
receiver with a phono preamp. Unless the phono preamp IS dead,
of course. But maybe someone can help me determine if it
actually IS dead...

I /tried/ to make this short, really!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

--
Any mental activity is easy if it need not be subjected to
reality.