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I have a Victrola 8-9 phonograph. I was wondering if the tonearm post is supposed to come out of the two shut off, "scissor" levers that surround it when you push the tonearm to right after playing a record? I asked this before, but I'm not clear on what part I'm missing that would stop the tonearm from separating from the scissor levers when you push it to the right.

I had an 8-30 do that and I gently bent the forks up a tad. Worked ok afterward. I figured the forks got bent down somehow. Or maybe the ball bearings in the tone arm base were too big (replacements).
-bill

I think you may have misunderstood my question a bit. My tonearm post stays in the fork fine while it's playing a record. I'm talking about when you finish a record and push the tonearm to the right side. Is it normal for the post to come out of the fork? Also I have another question. The spring was missing on my shut off mechanism, so I put another spring in. Now it shuts off great, but sometimes on some records, it shuts off prematurely. Is this caused by using maybe too strong of a spring?

No, the post is not supposed to come out of the forks when swung to the right. You can lower the post slightly by loosening the adjustment collar on it.

How would lowering the post stop it from coming out of the fork when you push the tonearm to right?

Thinking about it, do you mean that the arm pin comes out of the ENDS of the fork? We have been assuming that the arm pin jumped out OVER the right hand side of the fork! If I'm correct, then there should be something on the brake assembly to stop the fork moving that far to the right. A photo of the brake assembly would help.

There is no jumping. I'm talking about when you are done with a record and you push the tonearm to the right side to get it out of the way, the post comes out of both forks. then when I play a new record I have to make sure the post goes back in the fork so the shut off will work. I'll take a pic today and post it.

Sounds like the post on the tonearm is either bent away from the fork slightly (it should be dead vertical) or you have the wrong tonearm on the machine. The post should stop right at the opening of the fork when the tonearm is moved all the way to the right as pictured on my 8-9 below:

The arm is not supposed to swing so far to the right that it comes out of the forks. There should be a metal plate, under the tone arm mount, that limits the travel of the arm. Sometimes, those "get missing".

The unwanted triggering of the brake is a bit normal. Any run out of the record, or its grooves can trigger the brake, as it's very sensitive. Sometimes a worn and sloppy hole in the record can allow it to trigger the brake. Victor records usually don't have this problem as they knew it was critical to the proper operation of the brake. Records of "other" brands were not always so careful.

Victor also positioned that pin in several places on the tone arm, and you may have a tone arm where that pin is further back than your machine requires. I have one that does that, the tone arm is the correct length, but the pin is further back than where it is on the original tone arm (that the previous owner buggered all up trying to take apart).