DENON SC5000M Motor Maintenance

If your Denon SC5000M players struggle to stay on time, particularly when cold, it is very likely that the grease in the motors is caked/glued/gone. This is quite a common occurence. The Denon repair centre deal with the issue by replacing the motors (and charging £££), but actually in the vast majority of cases (in fact in ALL cases i’ve encountered to date) there is absolutely nothing wrong with the motors themselves. The issue is that in time the factory grease inside the motor fails - causing the motor to slow down by a few % points, and making beatmatching pretty impossible. This is particularly noticeable when the players are cold, and in most (but not all) cases the problem improves or disappears after about 20 minutes, once the grease warms up.

The bad thing is that this seems a common problems with the SC5000M, but the good thing is that a durable DIY repair is possible, and pretty straight-forward for anyone who has ever changed a lightbulb and built a Lego set (not necessarily at the same time!)

For avoidance of doubt, this page is not connected with/endorsed/supported/approved/linked to Denon in any way, and I assume NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damage to your player during or as direct or indirect consequence of this procedure. But if that sounds scary, I can also tell you that dozens of people have already followed the instructions below with a successful outcome. The success rate to date is 100%

You will need a 2.5 Phillips screwdriver, a 2.0 and 1.5 Allen keys (or Torx, see STEP 12), a tub of grease (I used green mineral grease for hubs, which I normally use on my bicycle, but any good quality velocity grease should work), and two cold beers for when you finish.

INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1
Remove vinyl and platter, and turn the player on its back. Remove all the Phillips screws (apart from the 4 ones holding the feet) and all the Allen screws (apart from the ones holding together the panel with the audio and electrical outputs). You will also need to remove the 3 small screws at the front and the 3 screws at the very back of the player (where it says ‘Denon dj’).

STEP 2
At this point you will be able to remove the whole back of the player, exposing the inside

STEP 3
Now you can remove the top PCB by undoing the 5 Phillips screws

STEP 4
Detach the small flat cable, and remove the black tape that holds it attached to the motor.

STEP 4.3
You will be able to gently fold the pcb back and get it out of the way without removing any other cables. Take your time to check that nothing is in the way.

STEP 5
Remove the electric connectors at the bottom of the motor

STEP 7
Carefully turn the player sideways (stuff may fall out!), or upside down if it’s easier, and remove the 4 Phillips screws that hold the motor in place.

STEP 9
Now that you have the motor out you need to take it apart. The casing is held together by 3 screws

STEP 6
Also remove the nearby flat connector, so you can remove the motor block that should now be free.

STEP 8
Put the player on its back again and pull out the motor block. There are quite a few wires that run really close to the motor’s PCB and that need to be pushed aside to get the motor out.

STEP 8.1
Once you do that it will come out very easily. The motor is out!
Almost there - you’re doing great.

STEP 10
Then you need to remove the retaining bridge with the first encoder (2 screws).

STEP 10.2
If you want to work more comfortably you can easily remove the encoder itself (2 screws, marked in blue), or you can leave it in place and just fold it back, whatever you prefer.

STEP 11
Now remove the 2 screws holding the second encoder in place

STEP 12
And using the 1.5 Allen key remove the tiny grub-screw that holds in place the top rotary disc (at the bottom in the picture. It’s the silver one, not the brass one). [PLEASE NOTE THAT IN EARLIER UNITS THAT GRUB SCREW WAS ACTUALLY A T6 TORX. Double check yours, just to make sure.]

STEP 13
At this point you will be able to push the spindle with the rotary discs through the motor
This too had a LOT more resistance than I thought - probably because of the old grease. A bit of gentle, persuasive push and pull work did the job…

You have now finished the dismantling stage.

STEP 14
Using a cotton bud or something similar remove all the old grease from the spindle and from the motor. Mine came out black .

STEP 15
Apply the new grease onto spindle and everywhere there are mechanical parts rubbing onto each other

Now carefully put everything back together following the same steps the other way round. Refer to the pictures and to the instructions to make sure you don’t miss anything. I hope my explanations were clear, but please ask me any questions you may have. You can reach me on the Engine DJ Community forum

Oh, and don’t forget to have your beers - you deserved it! And if you think I deserve a drink too for my hard work, feel free to buy me a coffee