There's more than one way to skin a cat !

How to remove Rega pulleys? An often asked question.

The answer is : there's more than one way to skin a cat ! Let's see:

diviy (UK) in vinylengine :

My pulley just popped off under finger pressure and I can refit mine if I wanted to.

bhutton (USA) in vinylengine :

I popped the plastic pulley on my P2 with flat of a screwdriver twisted to exert pressure and it came off fairly easily.

mattlynch (UK) in vinylengine :

alternately and this is the hack method!! get two flat blade screw drivers seated between pulley and motor and then....

bacobits (USA) in vinylengine :

I carefully used 2 same sized screw drivers, and it worked, go slowly. I used some Acetone on a cotton swab, not soaked, dabbed the top of the old pulley, let it set a few minutes. I also had paper towels around the shaft of the motor to not get any down the shaft.....

plastico (Canada) in vinylengine :

When I took off my pulley I put a paint scraper under the pulley to protect the plinth. While I applied heat with a mini torch-directly on top of the pulley, I gently pried upwards with a fork and it came off lickidy-split.

From my own experience, the plastic pulley of Planar 2/3 can be pulled out easily (by hand) without even a drop of acetone. Really easy. But for Rega P1 and above, we would require some kind of tools to pry out the pulley(after applying some acetone or nail polish removal). For aluminium pulleys (P3-24 and P5 ), it's even more difficult and applying some heat may help in this case.

And today we have good news from Thomas of Denmark!

He is going to share with us the professional way of removing an aluminium pulley using the proper pulley puller:

Instructions :

Function of the puller : When turning the big metal cone in the middle, you can change the distance between the two jaws of the puller and make them have a firm grip in the pulley groove. At the end of the center spindle, you can put an old 2.5 mm diameter sawed-off drill bit (or anything like that). It fits perfectly to the top of the motor spindle which is approx 2.8 mm in diameter. After tightening the jaws to the groove of the pulley, and centering the drill bit to the top of the motor spindle (eventually use fingers to keep it centered), it only takes a few turns with the puller - and the pulley is up and away! Remember first a little drop of acetone. So with this little device: No fiddling with screw-drivers! No scratches on the plinth surface. But most important: No harm to the motor, spindle or bearings. After having removed the stock pulley as described, I turned on the motor, and it was immediately spinning just as smooth and quiet, as it always has been. Where to buy the device: I am sure, you can buy the puller in stores, where they sell repair tools for cars or bicycles. The amount (here in Denmark) was just around 35 USD (200 DKK). This is cheaper than a new motor :-) I hope, these few guidelines will be a help to upcoming "upgraders" of Rega decks. Thomas Nielsen Silkeborg Denmark

Thanks , Thomas, for your generosity to share with us the pictures and instructions!

Read more on >> Thomas' comments ...... more PRaT ..... more layers ......