Rock Ola 425 Issues

I am helping a friend with his Rock Ola 425. We have a manual. There seem to be 2 issues. One when you press the cancel button on the back or move the tone arm to the cut off grove, these 2 switches are in parallel, nothing happens. Second the tone arm never drops down to the record. I can see there is a lift plate that should drop down once the arm moves over the record but this never happens. If you can offer any suggestion it would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tugs405

Well,
If you follow the sequence of operation that I think is in your manual, you would note that the cancel switches are not activated till the tone arm droped onto the record--so, that answers that one !! Now why is the arm not droping ? Gripper motor stopping too soon ? You will need to read the schematic as to how the motor should operate, and determine why it is stopped, prior to where it should. Ron Rich

Hi
Does the gripper arm release the record when t has been placed on the turntable. I would say that the gripper motor may be the problem, try turning off the machine and manually cycling the gripper motor and see if there is any binding when the tone arm moves and lowers to the record
clones

Yes the gripper releases the record after placing it on the turntable, the turn table starts and the tone arm moves over the record but does not drop. I need to get the manual from my friend and analyze what is going on at that step in the sequence. The machine is at my friends so I don't have access all the time. I can make it pick up the record and return it to the magazine but if I recall I need to manually move the Interlock relay. I will investigate and and report.

Thanks

Tugs405

Hi
If you cycle the gripper motor manually to pick up and return the record it should give you a rough indication if the gripper assembly operation is good or if something is binding the tonearm
Or you could loosen the gripper motor which will make it easier to cycle the mechanism
clones