Rowe R-81 Transfer Arm and Carousel Alignment

spookyblue

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First: Huge thanks for those who have offered advice and support on other issues throughout this project. I can't tell you how much I have appreciated the help this past month.

This is a Rowe R-81 that I purchased for my wife for our 6th wedding anniversary three days ago. It is actually our second jukebox. The first was a Seeburg S-100 that I never did get to work. They're both sitting in our basement, staring at each other.

The R-81 was way out of adjustment when I got it, and it was breaking records like French bread. This occurred sporadically when the carousel was not aligned properly with the transfer arm. The record would snag the edge of the return slot and stop, the carousel engaged (prematurely since the transfer arm wasn't yet all the way up), and snap!

Following the manual instructions, I've ...

- Centered the support arm on the back of the carousel.
- Leveled the top pulley bracket.
- Adjusted the transfer (bushing?) so the metal roller pin is level with the top of the nylon whatsit.
- Centered the top carousel slot to the transfer arm by loosening the two screws on the large carousel gear and turning the assembly.
- Tightened the screw holding the plastic disc at the base of the transfer arm.
- Made other adjustments to the tone arm (placement & shutoff switch).

Observations & further testing ...

- It is very difficult to keep the transfer arm from scraping one side or the other of the rear support bracket. I had it perfectly aligned at one point, but further fiddling has it slightly scraping again.
- After 10 or 12 successful transfers, a record did catch an edge in the carousel during return and bound the transfer arm. This time, however, the carousel did not engage and I had time to shut off power. I observed the carousel was not properly centered on the transfer arm, which is why the record got fouled. This was *after* I had already centered the carousel.
- As I see it, three things could be happening: 1) Centering the carousel is an extremely precise maneuver, and I'm ham-handing it. 2) Some of the metal bits making up the carousel "slots" are bent. The gap width does vary around the circle. 3) The carousel "stop" position drifts over time.

There are other issues as well, such as the "side 2" plunger pushing the linkage too far or too hard and causing it to stick, resulting in all plays stuck on side 2, and tone arm signal sometimes cutting out altogether. But I'm most concerned about the transfer arm / carousel alignment issue.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. My wife, bless her heart, hasn't given me much guff over this. Yet.
 
Hi Bill,

When you read my last message you will see that one thing can effect another.
With regards to the basket wires being out all you can do is make the best of what you have got to make the gaps uniform or replace the basket. if you try to bend them to suit you will never play catch up.

Check the the gripper bow for any broken plastic sections. The moulding on the back of the gripper bow turns the gripper bow so it is ready to put the record back correctly and the gearing adjustments have to be correct to achieve this.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK
 
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