How to get the stylus cables back into the tonearm of a Pro-Ject Debut III record player

In this post, I decribe the small issue I was facing with the stylus cables on my Pro-Ject Debut III record player.

Situation

After replacing the stylus on my Pro-Ject Debut III, the cables were too long. This wasn’t a technical issue. It was more about aesthetics.

First, I tried to push the cables back manually, but this seemed to worsen the problem. Next step was to ask for help on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/comments/121opwg/how_to_get_project_debut_cables_back_into_tonearm/

One recommendation was to remove the protective plate off the bottom of the turntable and then pull the wires back through. This seemed like approach. So this is what I did.

Fix

As a first step, I removed the turntable and fixed the tonearm with a piece of wire.

Then I turned the record player (with the dusk cover) upside down.

Next step was to remove the protective plate on the bottom. These are only two screws. And I was surprised how litte content I would find behind the plate.

To get the cables back into the tonearm, I pulled one cable after another carefully back in. From the side, I was able to see how far I needed to pull.

Done

As soon as I was satisfied with the cables, I put all parts together again. Last step was to set the counterweight. I found this YouTube Video quite helful.