Juke Box newb with questions

hasenfang

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Hey all! I just picked up a ROCKOLA 425 Grand Prix juke box. It is in physically good shape, however it doesn't play records. I really have never even looked inside of of juke before. But it has lots of records that came with it. So here is what it does, looking for some ideas of where to start...

Juke box powers up fine, lights etc..
put a quarter in, the juke "coins up"
you can then select a song with out a problem
then inside a big wheel on the right side (looking down at it standing in front) spins around and around.

Thats basically all it does... nothing else... any ideas where to start checking?
 
First thing is buy the manual from Victory Glass Company (www.victoryglass.com) . They are the world's largest jukebox parts supplier and hold the entire stock of NOS Rockola factory parts.

# 37-1202 (R-304) Rockola model 425 Service/Parts/Installation/Operation manual, 90 pages, $35.00

Inside the manual is a troubleshooting guide and schematics.
 
I bet it's just that the contact points on the "wheel" need cleaned. Get some electronics contact cleaner and spray it on all the copper lines and dots on both sides of the wheel and wipe with a cloth. You want to try and make them sorta shiny. Also, take some small strips of unused copier/printer paper, spray some cleaner on it and put it under the contacts that come out of the arm and touch the wheel. Lightly press the contact down and pull the damp paper through. Keep doing this until the papers come out clean. The right side of the wheel is the write side and the left side of the wheel is the read side and is connected to the record magazine.
I'll PM you about calling you later.
 
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I'm not even sure what that means! HAHAHA!! On the plus side, I downloaded the manual and took a quick look through it. I was able to get the record rack thing to spin around and around. I some how got it to play two records, they sounded a bit slow but they played, then back to where I started. I'm sure its just adjustments or something??? I really have no idea what I'm doing...

So when you select a song, the thing on the right still just spins around. I started manually moving the record "basket" and then noticed that a metal rod kind of hick-upped when it went by and was supposed to hit what looks like a switch, I manually hit that switch and it picked and played a record, I was able to do this again with another record. But the thing on the right kept on spinning through the whole song. I then powered down and rebooted, and tried again. I was not able to get it to play another song, however I did not spend a ton of time with it. Another weird thing is that the record finished and the needle didn't seem to go all the way to the middle of the record, so it just sat spinning, I gave it a little tap and it want to the center and reset it self and pulled the record off. I am so confused with this thing... any tips guys? Does any of this make sense or ??????
 
Ok... So at this point here is where I am...

If you select a song from the panel (i.e. A 7) the inner selector arm just spins around and around never stopping. However, if you do not select a song using the panel, but just flip one of the switches on the outer part of the wheel A 7 the outer wheel spins and then finds the then locks in, the correct record is then found and picked and put on the player and plays.

So -- I guess my first goal would be to make the Juke work consistently/at all from the song selector panel.

Issue 2 to address is that the sound quality is well, not so good. But I think this is due to very dirty/dusty records. I also believe the speed is incorrect the songs seem to be playing slow. Not sure where to go with that one.

Also, coming from the power supply, when the idle (before anything is selected) it is quiet. After a song has been selected it has a consistent loud humming noise that then continues as long as the Juke box is powered on. This usually then comes back even if it has been unplugged.

So any ideas how to proceed from here?

Thanks again to everyone for all your help thus far!
 
grand prix

Hi, did you get to the bottom of your issues? I to have a grand prix that is my first and have been working through some issues.
 
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