well I was able to get the bearing unstuck, the plan now is to use the old front bearing with the wedding cake drive and just use the a new C frame if I can find one. I may have one in the shop.
this is really not something I want to spend a dime on since its unlikely I will be spinning any records on this thing. I think I only paid 15 or 25 cant remember for the whole console so this turnable is not going to blow the budget
Aint that a hoot about the TT on ebay. Some other guy over at ARC has an issue with his zenith as well. My guess is two guys have a need, and bingo, bet you will neve see a zenith TT go like that again. I do like magnavax micromatic imperials the older ones with the gold trim. they are solid and I dig the way the tone arm taps the record to size it. Plus they use two idlers, one for the platter and one for the tone arm drive. Now those are worth a few bucks, but man this zenith thing is CHEAP!!! I am tempted to get a later model magnavox micromatic (the early astrosonics came with a nice one, just a bit more modern looking than the imperials) and put it in there, but I wont since I am not into frankensteing vintage gear.
I plan to put the orig tuner back since I have it working so well. the replacement is identical but for some very minor differnence in the dial face.