Grafanola tone arm removal from elbow with auto stop

[apruizii]

I'm trying to remove the tone arm from the elbow of the base of the Columbia Grafonola F-2 upright model I recently picked up, to sand down the joint so the arm moves from left to right more freely. It has the auto stop feature with the protruding sicle hook. Based on reading some threads on the forum I flipped the base over and removed the threaded washer by aligning two of the small holes with a pair of needle nose pliers and twisted the washer off. I then removed the exposed spring. Now I see there is a washer (maybe a compression ring) with a small notch aligned to a small post. This washer is directly on top of the other washer having the protruding hook. I'm having a really tough time removing the washer having the notch. I've tried prying a small screw driver in between the two washers with no luck. I don't want to put too much force because I'm afraid of breaking something.

Does anyone know how to remove the washer with the notch? Is it okay to put more force with the screw driver to pry the washer apart?

I would appreciate any tips/advise?

Thanks,

AR

[apruizii]

Here are a couple of photos for reference...

AR

[apruizii]

Oh well, I don't know if anybody would have had words of wisdom. But I started to carefully work a small screw driver in between the stop lever and the compression ring and managed to pry the compression ring up about ⅛ inch. Then I heard a light crack noise and thought it was the compression ring loosing up more so I worked it some more using a bigger screw driver to pry up and down and then the threaded upper part of the base cracked off into three pieces. So then, obviously it was a lot easier to get the compression ring off and I was able to remove the stop lever. Then I saw another compression ring and that was my clue to stop and not try to attempt to remove it, and call it a day and a learning experience. I screwed the base back on to the motor board and noticed the arm moves a little more freely form left to right; I played a record and it doesn't skip anymore. But obviously the auto stop feature is broken.

I now know first hand the issues of the crumbling pot metal of the Columbia machines.

AR