i have an older rega planar 2 tt (wood trim & glass platter) that i acquired through ebay last year, and it's gotten very slow lately (down to about 18rpm w/o record). i've read most of the previous symptoms & suggested remedies here at audioreview (as well as at audioasylum & ecoustics) ... JohnMichael has helped me through my first thread over in the 'vintage gear' forum (my Rega Planar 2 turntable is slow) & suggested i bring it here to 'analog' ... i've cleaned the pulleys, replaced the belt, cleaned & lubed the motor shaft and center hub bearing, using hypoid 90 gear oil, as suggested by Ray H in a previous thread. following this last measure, i got 33rpm for about 2 minutes, then it slowed right back down to about 16rpm this time (as the platter settled down). the motor's not making any odd noises nor does it eventually go backwards - as mentioned by some.

then i took the motor cover off from the bottom and was going to hold onto the motor while it ran (to imitate the fixed rega upgrade motor) and to see if it got better traction with the belt... well it was then that i realized that the glass platter on my tt was actually coming in contact with the top of the motor shaft pulley while it was turning. i'm pretty darn sure these are not supposed to touch, and this would explain the drastic slowdown in rpm once the platter had settled.

the bottom of my subplatter is not much more than 1 millimeter above the plinth. can someone with an operable planar 2 w/ original subplatter tell me how far down theirs sits in relation to the plinth? i did notice, when i first removed the subplatter from my tt, that the shaft had a good seal but minimal lubrication, and the single bearing fell right out when i turned over the tt. over time, could that dryness have caused the bearing to wear down the bottom of the shaft chamber, causing the subplatter to sit lower?

all is original as far as i can tell (not that i would know from any experience), but i can't see any reason why the motor shaft pulley would be too tall in this case - given it's the original planar 2 motor.

any ideas? (sorry for the length but i wanted to be thorough)
thanks ahead,
brian