Sorting out my AMI/Rowe R-81

[johnnynebula]

Hello anyone who might be able to help,



I've been tinkering with my AMI/Rowe R-81 jukebox on and off for a few years now and I am wondering if you could help me out with a couple issues I'm finding. When I bought the juke years ago the tonearm/cartridge was loose in the unit. After replacing the stylus with a new Shure, I soldered the tone arm wires back into place, but now I believe I've done something incorrectly. I have the manual but can't find a schematic for the wiring from cartridge to the amp. Does anyone have any knowledge on how the tone arm is wired or even a close up picture of the tone arm and cartridge wiring? I am also hoping someone could show me what the proper tap setup on the output looks like. As of now I have the connections made at E6 on both the left and right channels. Only the left channel seems to be working. The manual states to attach one common lead to E1, however I do not see another lead coming out from underneath the transformers to attach to anything. As far as I can tell I have one red lead and one brown lead. I believe the previous owner may have tried to replace the internal speakers so now I'm trying to sort through what was done correctly and what needs to be repaired. If you have a photo of proper wiring for the top speakers that would be appreciated too. Thank you for any wisdom you can bestow.



Thanks again,

John

[wdln]

Looking at my R-88 (same cartridge I think), the wires are Green-Red-Yellow-Black top to bottom as you look at the end of the tonearm/back of the cartridge.  G and Y are offset to the left, R and B are offset to the right.

If your interconnect from the mech to the amp (for the cartridge) uses an inline 4-pin connector, you can try flipping it around and connecting it the other way.  If your right speaker suddenly works and the left doesn't, then you have an issue with the cartridge wiring between the tonearm and that connector.  If it doesn't change, then the cartridge wiring is probably fine and it's something in the amp or output transformer connections.

I have also used a Q-Box or even a pair of old computer speakers and some alligator leads to check the L and R signals coming from the cartridge.  On that inline connector, the two inner pins are grounds.  The outer pins are the L and R hots.  The sound level will be low checking it this way (this is normal), but it will tell you if the wiring and cartridge are good to that point.

Looking at my output transformer and the R-88 manual, the violet (left channel) and pink (right) leads are connected to E5.  The leads for the wallbox connections (red and brown) are connected to the E4 terminals (I don't have any wallboxes connected, however).  The common black wire is on the right channel's E1 terminal.  Connecting the juke's internal speakers to E6 funnels all the available power to them, but leaves no power reserve for wallboxes or external speakers.  I put mine on E5 because that's the indicated default factory setup, but also on E6 the volume control was just too touchy.  You can even use the lower numbers if you specifically want to limit the maximum volume the juke can be set to; my R-88 was tapped on E3 when I got it, so the previous owners were either running a lot of extra speakers or wanted to limit the volume.

All the wires connected to the E terminals on the output transformer exit the top of the housing in a bundle; that's where I'd look for that missing black wire for E1.

All of the later Rowe-AMI phonos use a common ground (the E1 connection) for the two channels, and the crossovers in line with each speaker have to be wired correctly for everything to work.  My manual has a schematic for the entire speaker system in the Installation chapter.  I would suggest you study the one in yours and compare it to the way the juke is currently wired, even draw up your own diagram so as to better compare them.  If it's not right, figure out what you need to do to return it to the factory condition.