roc-ola 450 repair log...

cadillacman

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Just picked up this jem... checking it over it seems to be all there.

it wouldnt coin up, nothing working but lights and manual scan.

found a blown 1/2 amp fuse, somethng to do with the selection?

Replaced the fuse. Now it coins up. I can press the buttons for a record, it clicks, the arm on the left side goes around to find the correct "finger" to flip and flips it. Then the magazine turns. this is as far as it goes. the magazine turns and turns, it never picks up the record. However, every time the selected record is where it should be picked up i do hear a faint click... so im halfway there..


i am unsire of where to go from here..
 
man i dont know what i did but apparently it tried to pickup a record. the arm moved up about an inch and stopped, the motor that runs that mech is HOTTTTTT..

so i guess tonight i need to pull the moor off and see if the motor is bad or if the mechanisim is jammed.
 
I'd bet you a beer it just needs some oil in the right places.
The grease on em things turns into paste and gums up tight.
See if you can find a manual with a maintence chart, then shoot some oil at it.

At the very least, check out this picture and make sure you get this part moving nice and freely. It should slide back and forth so oil up both sides.
Don't use WD-40 unless you want to keep doing it every couple days.
 

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I'd bet you a beer it just needs some oil in the right places.
The grease on em things turns into paste and gums up tight.
See if you can find a manual with a maintence chart, then shoot some oil at it.

At the very least, check out this picture and make sure you get this part moving nice and freely. It should slide back and forth so oil up both sides.
Don't use WD-40 unless you want to keep doing it every couple days.

well i oiled up those spots you mentioned... freed them up, still binding(perhaps something i dont see from the outside associated with this stuff internally?), kept resetting the motor manually, finally, it picked up a record , slowed down but picked up sped at the apex, flipped it around and set it down on the turtable.. SWEET!!
got to listen to la bomba and then it ended. started to pick up the record, then pop pop pop pop the same motor in question is skipping the teeth on the gears. luckily i stopped it before it did any real damage...


so i know i need to adjust the gear contact there, but obiously i still have a bind somewhere in that mechanism. I ran out of time to mess with it tonight, will dig into it this weekend.


does this motor reverse directions to pick the record back up or does this mech just "cycle" and the motor runs the same way wether its setting a record down or picking it up?
 
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ok motor is supposed to go both ways.

i adjusted it so it stopped skipping gears, it was obious there was still some binding in that mechanism.

I realized at one point the two rear gears move independently of each other, mine barely moved even with careful force. Pulled the gears off, man that grease smells like tyranosaurus rex ballsack and it literally like paste/glue its so dried out...

so i oiled everything, better not perfect, kept oiling and working it, shes all freed up now.


She is picking up every record i pick in the 200s ( b sides) but i cant get it to pickup any 100s(a sides)... the magazine just turns and turns but does faintly tick(on the selection finger i would assume) when the selected record is in the area to pickup, it just doesent stop!

however, if i select a record in the 100s, it scrolls though but the starting number is 2 instead of 1...
while the mag is turning, if i press down on the lever and spring in front and down of the front gear, it picks up the record and plays properly, and the starting number is then 1...

so i guess i need to figure out now what is responsible for moving that lever to the proper position..
 
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Sounds like you are making some great progress. These seem to be hearty machines, I'll bet you just need to clean all the gunk out of the moving parts and re-grease them, and she'll be working.
 
it started picking up a sides!!!!

i keep oiling everything, the more i oil it and play it the better its working.... fricking amazing!! Like its coming out of hibernation lol
 
BTW - I picked up a 450 that was hacked up and partially disassembled (with a few missing parts). I plan on turning it into an MP3 jukebox (with touchscreen mounted at top), so if you ever need any parts, let me know and I'll check to see if they are still in it...
 
cool man i definately will...

i gotta figure out what makes the lever drop dowen to grab 1 sides... sometimes its great, but usually after it sits i have to help it the first time... time for more oil i guess..
 

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so far so good a pissload more oil, all is happy.

even printed up some new title strips to replace all the elvis( former owner just HAD to keep them, even though she had no other way to play them)

looking good. I even replaced the missing top lock so now when i accidentally close the lid, i can reopen it lol...
 

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Wish I had more luck with this Rowe AMI MM1 juke, stupid thing doesn't have any mechanical issues, mostly electrical right now because its not telling it to scan when a selection is made.

Good luck though!
 
dumb question: you do have the service switxh in the correct location right?

should be scan( to manuallty run and load records) off, and run or oper. or something like that.
 
Best thing to do is use a ton of brake clean first to clear out old gunk...then oil it.My 444 has been awesome for years now.Yers will just keep gumming up until you get the old crap out of the mech.
 
Once the jukebox is working and "lubed up," regular use is the best form of preventative maintenance and don't forget to play a few different "B sides" every week to keep the pins active.
A remote volume control with a reject button (or "bar-fight switch" as they were known in the trade) I consider essential, they just plug in and work with no problem at all.
One thing rarely mentioned is the carousel should be kept full of records to keep it in balance.
In fact some AMI machines made with greater capacity carousels than there were selections available had weights fitted to the empty slots by the manufacturer, as balance was considered so important.
 
regular use is the best form of preventative maintenance

I agree. And listening to records is way more fun than spraying oil!

Only had a couple 'misfires' with our machine. (Usually happens with the same record so I think the problem is with these records and not the machine itself)

Sometimes it'll place the record down on the turntable and trip the center spindle lever for 33 speed, then record spins out of center until it jams against the tone arm. Usually the reset 'Bar-fight' switch will clear it but sometimes it's get all crooked and I have to open her up to pull the record.

Anyone everr run into that? Only happens maybe, 1 out of 200-300 records so not a huge problem.
 
I agree. And listening to records is way more fun than spraying oil!

Only had a couple 'misfires' with our machine. (Usually happens with the same record so I think the problem is with these records and not the machine itself)

Sometimes it'll place the record down on the turntable and trip the center spindle lever for 33 speed, then record spins out of center until it jams against the tone arm. Usually the reset 'Bar-fight' switch will clear it but sometimes it's get all crooked and I have to open her up to pull the record.

Anyone everr run into that? Only happens maybe, 1 out of 200-300 records so not a huge problem.

This could be a problem with the gripper arm mechanism. They're pretty tough but can get bent, but not noticeably so, or else they've a bit of wear or not lubricated well enough so are a bit "slow."


There's often issues with records, I find that some of the re-issues with the big centre holes, these are slightly off-set or slightly over-sized, so I get a slight "wow" effect (that I notice but few others do).
I recently had a problem with a "new" re-issue. A "double A side" by the Coasters, "Little Egypt/Down in Mexico." The tone arm on my 468 was lifting a few seconds before the end of the "A side" track, I'd never had that problem with any other record, so I had to make an adjustment to the tone arm lift off point. Fortunately there's quite a bit of "track out" space on most records.

A point worth noting for anyone new to Rock-Olas is that you can adjust the set down and pick up points and the height the tone arm is set before it drops on the record. It can be set too high so it "bounces" on set down on the track in area.
It is possible though to set this too low so that the gripper arm when passing under it can whip the stylus off the cartridge. The right measurments are all in the manual.
 
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on my wirlitzer i had that issue, On this one, i remembered it and ive disconnected the rod that allows that mech to drop out for 33 rpm records. Yes so the brush isnt as effective, but in the interest of reliability. and the fact that only 45s are in here anyways,thats what i decided to do.
 
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