Okay, it has almost been a year and I totally forgot to post my findings. So here it goes:
I took the whispers apart which was pretty easy and documented my steps with photos. Since I did the 'fix' I have had no more problems with static or bad contact.
First, treating the whispers with de-oxit from the top does not help, it makes things temporarily better because it sort of lubricates the switch but it actually never gets to the gold contacts inside. After opening them this became quite obvious.
Please see attached pictures.
You can see the contacts on the top (upper contact) and the little spring like contact on the bottom (lower contact). Next step is to pull the lower plate with the lower contact out of the base. Underneath is a spring with two ball bearings on each side which are likely to shoot out, so pull that part off slowly, trying to cup your hand around it so they do not fly all over the place. Now you can see the 'indexing' part of the switch. In my opinion and findings it is really important to lubricate this section so the switch moves smoothly. This will allow the indexing to work better and the contacts are matching up better. I cleaned all the golden contact parts with deoxit and then with denatured alcohol. I then bend the lower contact that pushes agains the upper contact up so that it will make better contact, kind of like increasing its 'spring' tension. After putting everything back together I noticed that this was a big mistake, the tension was too high and the lower cantact got stuck while turning the switch. I noticed something went really wrong and opened the switch back up again. The lower contact bend completely backwards and I thought I just destroyed the switch. I bend it back in its original shape as good as I could. I put the whole thing back togheter, now with the lower contact having way less pressure against the upper contact. This turned out to be the trick. Once spring tension of that lower contact is less, it mates way better with the upper contact plate and is also not scratching away on the gold plating which might cause the static in the first place.
So to summ this long complicated rambling up: take care that the ball bearings don't shoot out at you when you take everything apart. Grease the lower indexing assembly. Try reducing the contact pressure by carefully pressing the lower contact togheter.
Unfortunately I do not have any pictures off the bend backwards lower contact but please feel free to contact me for high res. pictures or better explanation if something is unclear. I found that this little fix helped quite a bit. Is it worth the work? Probally not, but it would be a great thing to do to the whispers before you install your kit.
Cheers, stefan
« Last Edit: February 06, 2011, 11:49:06 AM by sl-15 »
Stefan Hampel
Soundsmith Carmen, modded Technics SL-1200mkII, Thorens TD 125 mk2 with SME V, Eros, Extended Foreplay III, BeePre2, Crack, Pioneer Spec 4, Sonus Faber Electa