Rowe AMI Cadette CMM1 restoration - help needed

[Ron Rich]

Eugen,
Stick a piece of paper under the wipers-- if you are still able to play songs, someone has "jumped" the wipers--somewhere ? If not-- you have "dirt" on that PCB they ride on-- did you clean it as stated, in the FAQ's contacts sticky ? Ron Rich

[viperz]

Aug 16, 2020 3:04:32 GMT Ron Rich said:

Eugen,
Stick a piece of paper under the wipers-- if you are still able to play songs, someone has "jumped" the wipers--somewhere ? If not-- you have "dirt" on that PCB they ride on-- did you clean it as stated, in the FAQ's contacts sticky ? Ron Rich

Hi Ron, will definitely go and give it a try! So if I lift the wipers with a piece of paper, the voltage should not be going to the relay, which picks the plunger, which enables the button selection... What I did - I dip the soft toothbrush in deoxit d5 contact cleaner and brush the board contacts - they were very dull and oxidized, and now look very shiny. I moved wipers up and down the cleaned tracks, but I did not clean the wipers themselves - I actually cleaned the wipers in search assembly with a piece of paper dipped in contact cleaner, and there was quite a bit of dirt. Will go to the sticky and read it... I also will remove the box with two rotational selectors and will clean those selectors, because I could only spray the contact cleaner into the top one so far. 

I really hope there are no jumped wires, although who knows... I am sure my light bulb problem must be related to this one, as 6VAC for the light bulbs is controlled through the pricing unit boxes (those rotational selector switches in particular). 


EDIT: put a piece of paper under the contacts - solenoid for the buttons is not engaging in ON position. Removed piece of paper - solenood engaged right away.

[Ron Rich]

Eugen,
That would indicate either improperly adjusted wipers, or a carbon short at the end of the trace ? Ron Rich

[viperz]

Ron, totally!! I can see that in the CCW-most position, wipers are off by one position! Outer-most wiper doesn't make it all the way to the first segment. I guess, I am going to remove wipers assembly and reinstall as per service manual. Looks like I just have to adjust them by one position...

[Ron Rich]

Hi Eugen,
Yep-- that'll likely "fizzit" !-- besides, it may save the step-down gear from "ruinization" -- lol Ron Rich

[viperz]

Ok, these wipers are something else. It is very hard to to set them correctly, given number of breaks in different tracks, and that they jump in multiple steps.

Anyway, at least when the wipers get down to zero now, the controls shut off, so I got this problem fixed. Thank you for your help, Ron.

I cleaned the tracks with swabs and contact cleaner on my bench, that's after I cleaned them with toothbrush. 10-12 swabs later, I have clean tracks and bottom contacts on the commutator board.

Lights still don't work. I sprayed contact cleaner into two switches in bottom pricing mechanism box... Since all lights don't work, I suspect that I lost ground somewhere in the 6VAC lighting circuit

[viperz]

Moved onto the credit lights issue. There are five light bulbs... 'Any selection' light used to work, then it started to flicker, then it stopped working completely. Three 'program selection' lights, 'any selection' and 'standard selection' lights...

Credit unit configuration that was made on the credit unit does not match any of the dozen+ configurations in the manual . I changed it to a known configuration, still nothing. Oh yes, all light bulbs are brand new.


Add to the issues list:

* popularity meter is off by exactly 1 selection. I was playing K5, but it punched A1 pin. Will look into that after I will hopefully get the light bulbs working...

[viperz]

What a mess!!

One completely broken off jumper wire, one broken wire on one side, and two totally oxidized light bulb sockets....
Now I have all 5 light bulbs working.

3 light bulbs always on behind price tag. 'Make standard selection' lights up after one coin. Then standard selection light goes off if I add more coins, but 'make any selection' light turns on.


Now need to work on popularity meter adjustment, and maybe there is an adjustment for the annunciator letters.


Onto repairing popularity meter now, which seems to be shifted by one position for some reason...

[viperz]

Uffff...

* readjusted popularity meter - shows correct letters now
* readjusted annunciator panel - shows letters fully now
* readjusted speed coil height and tracking weight, fed turntable wiring correctly



So the other two things I see that need adjusting now:

1) Popularity meter pins get moved all the way to the reset plate instead of 1/32 of an inch every time the song plays... I don't see in the manual how to adjust that force or travel of that hammer.

2) None of the two fluorescent bulbs work. I bought brand new bulbs, I am not sure if it's the starters that don't work or what...

[Ron Rich]

Hi Eugen,
Starters, would be the 1st thing I tried-- did you buy the CORRECT starters for the lamps ? Some of the "Universal" starters, I find to be somewhat dubious, in their operation -- Ron Rich

[viperz]

Hi Ron,

The jukebox came with a bag of (used) starters. I need two FS2 type, will pick them up at a local hardware store tomorrow.

I also figured out why the popularity meter pins get moved all the way in instead of 1/32". The popularity meter has a friction foam pad inside, which is pretty much gone and just started to crumble when I touched it. I will find some weatherstripping 3/4" wide by 1/4" think and will try to make a new pad. I also need a boatload of 1/4"-wide weatherstripping (I guess, 1/8" thick) for all doors in this jukebox to prevent rattling, as original foam/stripping is all gone.


I hope this will be it for functionality issues, and I can move onto repairing heavily dented top cover, stripping and repainting three leftover covers.


I also need to make a 33.3 sense wire contraption if I want 33.3 7" records to play at correct speed, although I highly doubt I will ever use that feature. I got some nice solid thin steel wire, which might work.

Oh, the bottom woofer had a metal grill covering it, but there was also some kind of fabric there (dust protection?). It completely rotted. I have a piece of black speaker grill cloth somewhere, which I can use instead I guess.

[viperz]

Fixed the popularity counter. It was harder than I expected. I bought a roll of 3/4" by 1/4" weatherstripping foam tape. Cut it to length. That was the easy part. Then I had to really flatten it in order for the letter/number indicator strip to fit and lock on top. Works great now.

Replaced 18" fluorescent bulb and its starter. It's working now, but holy crap, the transformer is noisy

Can't fit 26" flourescent bulb in the door - the bulb holder on one side is broken and missing a piece. I don't even know where to find one of those - it's butt-on type, so it screws to the bracket from the back, not from the bottom like regular T8 bulb holders. Replaced the starter in that circuit too. Will have to find somewhere a good replacement bulb holder.

[viperz]

I think I found another thing that needs adjustment - with no record, the tonearm will go in, lower, but won't go back. The cut-off switch works fine when tonearm gets to the end of the record... The manual says some screw is supposed to touch the cut-off switch to trigger the cancel operation...


Also, how do I confirm that my cartridge is indeed Shure N44 to order the replacement stylus?


(I splurged and ordered the replacement for broken fluorescent bulb holder from ebay... The transformer for the fluorescent bulb is really noisy, I need to figure out what to do with it too). 

[viperz]

Fixed the cancel issue with no record present. Adjusted sit-down arm screw and cleaned cancel metal plate under it.

Ordering new N44-7 Shure stylus. Hopefully it will help with cleaner highs.

[viperz]

Is there a place hopefully in Canada to order printable labels? I am almost ready to start loading the jukebox with 45s. Thank you.