Ami Continental 2 magazine motor is not rotating.

[jdb]

Hi All,

I have an Ami Continental 2 100 Play (KJKB-100) adapted to work at 230V / 50hz. When I bought it back in 2008 it had a broken tone arm and a weak transfer motor that someone had attempted to repair (without success) but was otherwise in working condition. I purchased replacement parts and fitted them to the machine and all was working fine albeit with a bit of a hum.

A few years later I moved to a 3rd floor flat and so sadly had to place it in storage for a number of years. About 3 years ago I moved back to a house and after having it serviced by a local Jukebox company in London it's been running fine. 18 months ago I moved to Dublin and after careful packing / unpacking the Jukebox survived the journey and up until a month ago has been running ever since.

I was back in the UK for 3 weeks over Christmas and when I returned to Dublin I discovered the record magazine no longer turns after making a selection. Also if I set the Mech switch to the “SCAN” position nothing happens.

I have yet to find somebody able to service the machine in Ireland and my original idea back in 2008 was to try to learn how to maintain the machine myself so now seems like as good a time as any to start.

I've got a copy of the service manual I bought from Victory Glass shortly after I acquired the machine and have been familiarising myself with the mechanism.

When powered on all the lights come on and when the mech switch is to “On” I can make selections however after the selection is made nothing happens next. (I would expect the magazine to start to rotate as it starts a scan)

The transfer arm is currently in the rest position as shown on page RCS-23 of the manual. The camshaft switch assembly is pressing down on the switches 1 - 5. I’ve checked the lead to the magazine motor and it’s attached correctly.

I’ve been reading through an earlier thread on this board: jukeboxaddicts.proboards.com/thread/2264/continental-ami-juke-box-fault
And though a different problem gave me some pointers.

My gut feeling is that there is a problem with the magazine motor however before resorting to disassembling the mechanism to get to the motor I was going to carry out the following steps.

• With the power off and following contact guide in the FAQ: jukeboxaddicts.proboards.com/thread/436/contact-continunity-checking try to disconnect CS2 and check the switch is working properly. It looks like the connections are going to be fiddly to get too.
• With the mech switch set to “SCAN” check the voltage through CS2 the connections to the switches in the CS assembly are very close together and I don’t fancy trying to stick probes in there with the power on. (There is a big sticker on the top of the Camshaft switch assembly saying “Caution 110 V”) Any tips on reading the voltage? Are there special clips for multimeter probes that can be attached while the power is off, then the test can be carried out by turning the jukebox on?
• The next step is to check the power to the motor. I’m not quite sure how to do this as the power supply plugs directly into the motor and I’m not sure how to get a connection to test the voltage, any tips?
• In the other thread there was also a suggestion to check the DC voltage from the Junction box: jukeboxaddicts.proboards.com/thread/2264/continental-ami-juke-box-fault?page=4 to check the voltage isn’t dropping too much when the motor should be activated.
  

I guess the next stage would be to check the motor which likely means removing it from the mechanism, however that's a problem for another day.

Does anyone have any thoughts on my plan? Thanks for any advice you can give.

Jon

[Ron Rich]

Hi Jon,
Plans sound logical to me-- check all fuses--first-- Yes, "all kinds of clips-- probes", are made which should allow you to attach them to the proper places with the power off-- and stand clear-- Good luck ! After checking fuses-- see if you can "jog" that motor's armature-- It is an AC motor, with a "fly type" clutch-- may just be dry--oil both end bearings of the armature ! Ron Rich

[jdb]

Thanks Ron,

Long story short it's now working again.

I had to buy some new probes for my multimeter and then followed the checks

* Fuses (all o.k.)
* Voltage from Junction box (o.k.)
* CS2 switch (o.k.)
* Voltage across CS2 when mech switch set to scan (24 v DC)

After this I went to check the motor voltage and used some probes to piece the insulation of the motor wires, to do this I had to disconnect the motor connection to access the wires. I cleaned the plug connections, reconnected the motor and now it's working again and the carousel is now turning at a much better rate than it ever had previously.

The mechanism and wires are quite dirty I doubt it's ever been cleaned except in areas where repairs have been required. Maybe a longer term project.

Thanks for your reply, it gave me confidence to start trying to diagnose issues.

I have another query regarding a background hum (gets louder when the amp isn't muted) however I think this is likely a common issue so will take a look at the rest of the forum before creating a new thread.

Thanks,

Jon

[Ron Rich]

Hi Jon,
Thanks for the post-- glad it's working--Did you OIL it ??
Ron Rich