About the adjustable plate I mentioned in my previous post. I'm not sure just what this thing adjusts, but it ain't the swing limits of the tonearm! I ran that little bugger for one extreme to the other and it made absolutely no difference of when the tonearm sat down or picked up. I'm guessing that the adjustment Wayne mentions is on the inside on this one.

Then I decided to take the "sledge hammer" approach. I removed the little trigger lever that sets the whole automatic shut-off apparatus into motion. This gave me the desired effect of allowing the record to play clear to the end. Yay! It also gave me the undesirable effect of not being able to turn the dang thing off once it is turned on. Boo!

So, I'll pop open the case next and dig around in its innards looking for the tonearm swing adjustment. I'll post the results here just in case anyone else gets in a match of wills with a Realistic LAB-500.