New Seeburg M100A Owner

Hi,

I just purchased a M100A. The person selling it had two Seeburg's a M100A and a M100B. Both of them belonged to her father who was a collector in Las Vegas. She needed the room so I purchased one.

I am getting a set of manuals. In the mean time...

The unit is a good original. It looks like nobody ever messed with it. The case is in very good condition.

The unit is playing the same record over and over. I took the magazine out and the rear plate and cleaned off the oil sludge. I did not pull it out and clean it extremely well. I just got off the most offending stuff. I oiled using a little 20W non-detergent oil I have for my '49 Desoto M6 trans. I greased the worm gear and rack gear with a little lubriplate.

The coil drop works and the buttons work. If I set all the relay pins off and then pick one, the unit seeks and finds that pin just fine. The record is picked up, it gets set, then just as the tone arm hits the record it lifts up and the record is put back. It will do this a few times and then stop, although the selection light is still on.

The unit has a Thorpe Cartridge. The tone arm spring look to be a mess. I found someone on the internet that has this cartable in a box and emailed me a photo of the springs and the said the length are 1-11/16" and the tracking weight on the paperwork in the box is listed as 4 to 6 grams. He is going to measure the coil dia. later in the week for me so I can get a set of springs made up.

I have a number of WWII Victory Discs that I want to play in this box. Can anyone advise on which cartridge would be the best choice to match with such records? If the original Blackhead is better on the records than the Thorpe, then I need to find one. If there is some other cartridge that would be better, then I would like to know that as well.

Thank you for any information and advise.

Best, James

James,
I have a sinking feeling that you may be in trouble here--if that A is equipped with a "Thorpe". I believe it is a "converted" machine. It may have been converted to play 33-1/3 rpm records, or 45 rpm records. It no longer will play 78's. There would not have been any other reason to invest in the time, trouble, to install that cartridge, that I can think of---Ron Rich

Hi Ron,

The box was full of 78's and the seller had another box next to it a M100B. She said her dad was a collector in Las Vegas and that it had played for years with 78's in her dads home. The speed seems correct. I think the old cartridge was just changed. The play cards were all typed up and matched the records. So, I don't think it was changed. The box also has that look of one that was never messed with.

It is hanging on one record and never plays it. It just loads it. Have you ever seen this behavior before?

Thanks, James

James,
As I said--I don't often work on that model, and thus don't know it too well--it would be my guess, from what you have written, that the clutch yoke and detent lever is frozen to the pin. Ron Rich

Hello James. Cool jukebox. RTMF Read The Manuals First is the best advice. Two thoughts for you. 1. Many Seeburg M100A jukebox owners hang out at a yahoo group called seeburginformationclub and you should join. 2. visit this site to learn more about Seeburg Common Symptom Number 1: playing one record over and over. http://www.west.net/~jay/fmillera/fmill ... ptom_1.htm

Thanks Mark. I have a manual inbound. I will check out that forum. I have all but one record out. With all the relays in so that the unit thinks there is no selections it sits waiting for a selection. After a selection, of the one slot with a record, it pick it up the record and places it and the tone arm starts into position. Almost as soon as it get close to or on the record, it picks right back up and puts the record back. It picks it up again and keeps this up for 3 to 6 cycles and then stops. I used a quarter and the selection light is still lit up.

I guess I will have to wait until the manual shows up so I can take the whole thing out and clean it well and put it back. I am also waiting on new needles and trying to see if I can find out the original Thorpe spring sizes.

Best, James

Hi All,

My Thorpe cartridge has issues. I may be able to get it to work (Once I get he springs thing worked out).

However, I want to hunt down an original Seeburg Pickering Blackhead that is specific to the M100A. In the event you have one to sell, let me know. If you run across one, please let me know as I have tried all the usual suspects without any luck.

Thanks, James

You most likely will need to hunt down the correct springs, also--
Ron Rich