Troubleshooting help

[smithjrandall]

Greetings all,

newbie here, my neighbor acquired a Rock-ola 442 and I have volunteered to help with the restoration.  The unit is in tact and has the usual frozen grease problem with the gripper arm.  We removed the entire changer mechanism and placed it on a maintenance stand for easy access.  We have removed all the grease and have all the parts free along with the basket a/b cam which was also frozen.  We removed the motors for ease of maintenance and both turn freely after they were installed, but when we re-installed the mechanism we hit a snag.

it appears to be having a sequencing error (if I was to guess).  when we powered it up and moved the service scan switch from off to scan the gripper arm moved from the home position over the basket and over to the turn table.   The turntable rotated but the basket did not move. The arm remained at the turn table and there was a buzzing like a stuck relay.  We also smelled smoke.  I turned the powers off and opened the electronic boxes in the back (amp, coin counter, power supply) but did not detect anything burn there so we suspect the changer  mechanism.

is there a way to isolate power from the major components so I can eliminate the electronic boxes?  I saw the fuses but the labeling  is a bit confusing.  Also how can I walk through all of the sequencing to make sure I did not reinstall something backwards or out of whack?  Bothe the gripper motor and basket motors turn freely with the shaft extensions so nothing is frozen now.

thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide!

jim

[Ron Rich]

Jim,
I do not understand-- fusing is marked-- be sure all are the same type/value (size) as called for, or lower !
Basket should not turn unless the gripper arm is fully in the "stored" position-- As for finding what's burning-- you just need to look ?? Ron Rich

[jukenorman]

Hi Jim,
My initial thought is that somehow the motors have been swapped - ie the transfer motor has been plugged into the magazine motor socket. It shouldn't be possible to do that but only because the cables aren't normally long enough to allow it. It is something I have seen done in the past (the cables looms had been butchered)! Bear in mind that it might not be your mistake!

What you probably need to do is wind the gripper arm back over the basket and check it out electrically. You should find a number of past threads helpful, one of which I like to refer to as the Ollie thread (also a 442 and down on page 3).

Norman.

[smithjrandall]

Thanks Ron and Norman, I will check those out.  Is there anything else besides the drive gears on the gripper arm that may need to be synced?

[Ron Rich]

Not that I know of--- Ron Rich

[smithjrandall]

Thanks again, I have everything running like it should but the sound is a bit wobbly. I did replace the idler wheel but the new one sounded worse than the original. I am asking for my money back and will get another but thought i would check with the experienced folks here to see if ther are any other parts I should be looking at in addition to the idler that could cause the sound to wobble and by wobble I mean slight variations in speed. I have cleaned the inside of the turn table and lubricated it. Made sure there is no lubricant on the Motor shaft etc.

Also who sells reliable idler wheels?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Jim

[Ron Rich]

Hi Jim,
Please post what you found wrong above !
Did you properly lubricate (OIL__20 wt., 0NLY) both sides of the motor-- and the slide mechanism for the idler wheels ? Didja read, the above sticky, on common problems ? Ron Rich

[smithjrandall]

Thanks Ron, I am using 20 wt oil and hit all the areas mentioned above. What do you mean by “sticky”? Also who sells decent idler wheels?

[Ron Rich]

"Stickies" are the items pinned to the subject with a "red pin"-- all-most all sections start with the stickies. Sellers of phono parts/items are shown in the FAQ's sticky --"books---repair---" Ron Rich

[smithjrandall]

Great! Thanks Ron