[pete5383]

Hello everyone!

I'm Pete, and I just picked up a beautiful Philco 50-1724 that I would like to get back to its former glory. I got it from an old fella who had it stored in a shed for years. I will caveat is that I'm quite a novice and very ignorant; I only got this thing because I immediately fell in love with it. I wanted to start this thread so I could chronical my journey.

So, I followed along with some directions I found, and got ahold of an old manual, and after some careful testing, I was able to turn it on and not have it explode. The radio works, which is nice! The record player (Philco M-20) turns, but appears to not be sending signals. It clearly needs a new needle, but probably more than that. But I think I can work my way through that.

However, I do have one VERY dumb question, and I can't find an answer anywhere. When I move the tone arm in to place it on a record, it moves freely and nicely. But when I try to move it back to its home, there is a noticeable "catch." Although it does move back, the pressure I have to put on it doesn't "feel" right, like I'm forcing it. I think this is from the trip finger (?) holding it up, but I can't find anything in the manual about what the right way is to move it back. It seems like I'm missing a button or something that would allow the tone arm to swing back without any catch.

Thank you so so much for any help I could get with this, and future, stupid questions!