This page you will find information on coin op and jukebox repair that I think maybe useful to others in the diagnosis and repair.
Usually a result of my own findings as I carry out repair work.
22/1/17
AmiRowe JEL JAL slams record down.
There may be some interested in this one.
I have read other articles on this mechanism doing the same thing- this may just be the problem in some cases.
I have a long history regarding one particular AMI JEL of 1963 that had always put the records down too hard in my opinion. was never able to fix or make it better but always thought they would not have left the factory that way.
Anyway after about 10 years and three different owners the machine finally came up with a much more serious fault - the gripper arm out of sync with the rest of the mechanism.... very dangerous as the carousel can try to rotate with the gripper still clamped to a record. After some investigation I re set the gripper and tightened the allen screw on the left hand side motor (the cam with the switches) as I thought initially it may have slipped. The machine now went through its paces correctly.... but not for long. out of sync gripper arm again!
More investigation required- trouble shooting pages don't help with these kinds of problems. In short turns out the roll pin on the crank arm of the changer motor had sheered but it must have broken off slowly as replacing this roll pin removed any slop it would have had prior and now the record is placed down like it should.
Seeburg record clamp wheels and flywheels are not all the same,
some are better than others and they can be interchanged.
Common faults are misalignment resulting in failure to clamp or clamping ok but noisy or record oscillating resulting in minor but quite clear to the trained ear needle to record speed fluctuations. Is that the right way to explain?
Pictured right is a late 50's clamp wheel and flywheel which is fine for large hole records which Americans would widely use and also is fine for slow mechanisms such as models HF100R & V200 but for us who use small hole records this clamp wheel especially causes problems. It is also possible this clamp wheel was never intended for small hole records.
Note that there is no angle/countersinking of the flywheel centre hole.
Look at the following pics as this clamp wheel and flywheel evolved / changed as the years went on.
left pic shows a clamp wheel that is obviously fine still to play a large hole 45 but cannot play a small hole record due to the shoulder of the centre pin being worn out and will not insert into the flywheel hole enough. the result - oscillation. the tone arm would probably rock back and forth 4-6mm with this one.
pictured right here we have a clamp wheel and flywheel with somebody's modification that will work quite well - so here we can notice the clamp wheel has been on a lathe and had some material removed allowing more of the centre pin shoulder to be exposed and the flywheel centre hole has been countersunk somewhat to allow the clamp wheel pin to better 'find' its home.
So left we now have a pic of a later model (late 60's) factory set
where the clamp wheel looks quite different and the flywheel is countersunk a lot allowing more versatility as different size 7 inch records enter the mechanism on the slide the adjustment on the clamp wheel can be set quite low allowing the centre pin to ride up a little on the angle to lift the record up off the slide. on a small hole record here there is plenty of shoulder on the centre pin in the flywheel ensures virtually no oscillation.
Use of this clamp wheel on earlier machines is quite beneficial.
Ami JEL / JAL and Tropicana
(possibly some other AMI's)
Effect - No selections- selection pins not pushing or lost selections ie:
All other selections but maybe no 8's
Cause - broken contact slides in keyboard button banks (brittle plastic)
See pictures on right and below
Left - A JEL keyboard showing broken slide contacts - note that I must have spent 2 hours or more on the fault before deciding to inspect and disassemble the button banks. notice the broken slide contact parts inside?
I had a couple of spare keyboards so donor slides was no problem.
