Basic turntable requirements and hum...Solved

[highfigh]

I strongly suspect lead free solder as the root cause of all this.

That could easily be the problem- it would help to see a photo of the ground connection to the chassis/tonearm. If they used a simple crimped ring terminal or some kind of crimped terminal in a Molex/Euro terminal, it could have oxidized or cut some of the wire strands but it may be a soldered connection and in that case, I agree- desoldering and resoldering with 60/40 using adequate ventilation would probably make it last for a long time.

 

[3db]

I came to the party late I see. That your turntable was humming once you unplugged the wallwort indicated to me that your tonearm was acting like an input with a high resistance lead. Good job on tracking down the issue and repairing it. You're back to having your good all round turntable back in top shape. My ProJect Xpression III Ive had for 11 years now has been problem free. It too uses the same wallwort as yours.