Rowe R-86 - New To Me

Good evening Gents.
After many years of yearning for a jukebox, I found a deal I couldn't refuse.
A complete R-86, fully loaded with records for the paltry sum of $20.00. (I'm in Canada)
Of course for that price it is in-op. The good news is that it's all there, and all the lights are working.
The bad news is it won't work. I have ordered a factory service manual, but while I wait for it to arrive
I thought I'd see what you experts have to say.
So, when powered up it will select a record, place it on the turntable, (which is spinning) and then pick it up
and put it back in the carosel. The tone arm makes no attempt to move.
Any thoughts on where I might start my trouble shooting efforts??

Thanks very much for any advice you might have.

Bruce
aka Big Dog

Hello Bruce,

Being as you don't know any history of the jukebox you need to check all the boards for dry joints (called cold joints in the USA) this is cracking in the solder around the connection pins on all of the circuit boards.

Start with the Power Supply PCB the connection to check is the long one from the transformer. Go onto the other boards:-

CCC
Mechanism Control Unit
Pricing Board (long board with a clear plastic cover, all lines of data go through this board)

The fault more than likely will be your CCC but it is best to test all of the boards above. Bruce Wentworth is your best bet to get these tested/repaired.

Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Bruce,
Am I correct in my understanding of what you are saying--the needle lands on the record, and is instantly removed?
If so, there could be one of two things wrong. Either the "record missing" adjustment screw is mal-adjusted on the tone arm, or there is a short in the "reject circuit" somewhere. The screw can be located/checked by looking at the tone arm support shaft, area--to the left you should see a black-cloth covered flexible wire. This wire is fastened to a small PC board and just un-plugs. Remove that plug/wire, and try the phono (Oh, BTW--You DO have a record in the selected slot--don't you ? )
Ron Rich

Thanks Alan for the fast replies, that gives me somewhere to start.
Ron, the tone arm does not move at all.
The record is picked from the carosel, placed on the turntable, and then removed, all within
about 5 seconds.
You can probably tell I'm eager to get this thing working again, but will wait for the manuals before
I dig too deep.

Thanks again.

Bruce.

Bruce,
Did this phono "get moved, without being "bolted down for shipment" ? Sounds as if the tone arm has "bounced" out of proper sync. Try the following --
Play a selection allow gripper arm to place record on TT, and turn off power. Lift rear ( at "post") of tone arm up, and set needle on the record. See if it works well now--
Ron Rich

I tried what you suggested Ron, with no new results.
I did a little more digging, and watching and here is what I found:
There is a black plastic cam, that actuates the up, down, and left right motion
of the tone arm. This cam spins freely on it's shaft. In other words, it does not
rotate. I don't see any means of attaching it to this shaft, however.

There is a metal collar that has 2 set screws in it. They relate to the 2 in the tonearm cam. The book will help you adjust it. You will also need to resolder all the pin connections on all the printed-circuit boards properly.

Hello Bruce,

You say that the tonearm cam just spins on the shaft?
Jukejohn is correct re the collar that is fitted to the shaft with the two allen grub screws, if this is tight on the shalf then the tonearm cam location peg is broken off of the cam. If you remove the circlip from the shaft you can remove the cam to check that the location peg is still there or broken off.
The tone arm has two metal pegs that follow the cam so make sure these are in the correct place.

To check if the placing of the record and removal is not down to shorts in the reject circuit, mevove the connection from the cut off board and remove one of the wires from the reject button on the mechanism, also make sure that the uninsulated connections on the two cam switches on the transfer motor are not shorted out.

Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Thanks for the clarification Alan.
I'll have to track down a new cam, and collar. I clearly am missing the collar, and I suspect the
cam is broken. My only concern is that there seems to be very little shaft showing past the c clip.
To my eye, there isn't enough room for any kind of collar on the shaft outside of the c clip.
It appears this is going to be a bit of a challenge to get this machine running again.

Also, can you describe exactly where the cut off board is?

After watching a You Tube video, I now fully understand tone arm cams.
The collar is on the inside of the cam. The cam in my machine has clearly broken off the locating tab.
One mystery solved, on to the next.

Hi Bruce,

So you need a collar and screws maybe a tone arm cam.

The cut off board is under the tone arm it is fixed by one screw and it goes into a slot on the tone arm pillar. You slacken the screw to allow the cut off reed to travel in or out. You tend to adjust this with a few records to allow for short and longer tracks.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Bruce,
Which U-tube vid did you watch ? Can you post the link ?
The cam is available, (new!) from John Durfee at: www.jukeboxparts.com . If you contact him, please tell him I said to save up some "lunch money" for mid May--as I am planning to be there then -- Thanks, Ron Rich

No problem Ron, the link is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH_VTGd53Es

I'll be sure to tell John that lunch is on him.

Thanks--might note--on that vid, the copper spring is shot--newer ones were nylon---
Ron Rich

In the never ending search to solve my constant cancel problem, I have a couple of new questions for you all.

Is it possible that a broken tone arm cam would cause the record to be removed from the
turntable as soon as it is placed there?

And could a bad control computer also cause this problem?

Hi Bruce,

It will be down to a faulty board, most likely the CCC.
This is the most common fault on this era of jukebox.

Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man