VPI Aries platter/bearing change out

Hi Ken, It is pretty straight forward. Steps I took :

For the platter,

1. remove the tonearm 2. If you are using damping fluid cover the top with some saran wrap and an elastic 3. remove the pulley 4. lift the platter off 5. stand unit on its end and unscrew bottom nut 6. slide assembly off from the top 7. slide new assembly on and secure with nut (at this point I used the cartdrige alignment jig to make sure the table centre was the right distance from the pivot. You may also be able to adjust the jig once the platter is tightened. 8. place new platter 9. place tonearm and make sure the cartridge is aligned properly.

For the motor assembly,

1.Turn assembly upside down 2.unscrew bottom feet 3.detach the motor wires making a note of which wire goes where 4. turn the unit right side up and loosen the top screws 5. slide metal ring off the top and lift motor unit out 6. slide the wires of the new unit through the opening to the bottom 7.secure the top screws (you will have to use an allen key to remove the pully assembly from the motor in order to slide the ring back on) 8.flip over and reattach the motor wires 9. attach plate with feet

Your done.

Hi Ken, I upgraded my cartridge since I posted the problem and found that the new cartridge was resulting in the same hum problem. So I replaced the old platter with the new platter and the hum disappeared quite a bit. The calprit ended up being the new motor. I replaced the new motor with the old one and it totally eliminated the hum. I am pretty sure its because of the lack of space in the cavity the motor sits in. I played around with the new motor placing the foam from the old motor on the bottom of the new motor and this decreased the noise floor substantially. I believe that if there was more room around the motor, this hum would not be an issue. I did contact VPI but they could not help out.
Byron