Help Requested - Rega 250 arm resistance

[Rniner]

A used NAD 533 with Rega 250 tonearm shows a curious fault. As the Grado cartridge tracks a record it begins to skip about 2/3 of the way across the full playable surface of the record. When picking up the arm I can feel a slight resistance to further lateral motion. This resistance almost feels inertial or hydrolic (hard to explain). I can "work around" the problem by loosening the arm assembly and rotating the whole tonearm unit clockwise so that the resisting part of the tonearms path lies beyond the grooves. This "fix" is cheating and I would be interested in any ideas from experts on the Rega (of which I am not!)

[JohnMichael]

Do you know if the arm had been rewired? Sometimes the tension of the wiring harness can cause problems.

[Rniner]

Do you know if the arm had been rewired? Sometimes the tension of the wiring harness can cause problems.

I do not have any information on a rewire except that reference was made to a new RCA plug but that does not directly point to a rewire. How do I adjust the tension on the wiring? It looks like there is a tiny set screw on the side of the threaded "pipe" the wiring comes out of, does that allow loosening the end cap and then releasing the wiring coming out of the base of the arm assembly? Is the wiring then rotated or given more slack inside?

[JohnMichael]

One way you can tell if the tonearm has been rewired is by looking at the cartridge clips and also if there is now a ground wire. The Rega clips, if you look at them in the direction the pin would be entering, are triangular shaped and copper. Most rewires use Cardas clips and they are round and gold plated. I do not know what you can do if they rewired the tonearm incorrectly because they probably cut the wires too short. I sent my RB 250 to be rewired because I was afraid of similar problems. Of course you could also have bearing problems but that is unlikely. I would suggest sending just the tonearm to the current Rega distributor to have it checked out. It is a good tonearm and certainly worth the trouble.

[Rniner]

One way you can tell if the tonearm has been rewired is by looking at the cartridge clips and also if there is now a ground wire. The Rega clips, if you look at them in the direction the pin would be entering, are triangular shaped and copper. Most rewires use Cardas clips and they are round and gold plated. I do not know what you can do if they rewired the tonearm incorrectly because they probably cut the wires too short. I sent my RB 250 to be rewired because I was afraid of similar problems. Of course you could also have bearing problems but that is unlikely. I would suggest sending just the tonearm to the current Rega distributor to have it checked out. It is a good tonearm and certainly worth the trouble.

The clips are copper and triangular - However the wires appear (to an uncertain eye) to be a wee bit thicker than I might expect tonearm wires to be. I suppose the safest bet would be to send the arm away to be checked.