Rockola 429 Arm Jams

My Rockola 429 (Starlet) gets stuck when the B side of the record is selected. This Has just recently started doing this. When the record is picked up it turns and ends up falling onto the turntable. The grabbing arm seems to go out of a alignment and gets stuck on the little post with the natch in it that it slides through (it falls below the turntable instead of laying flat). I then have to carefully pop it back into place(pulling up on it) but i am afraid that its gonna break if i have to keep doing this. It was doing this with the A side but not as drastic(it would stop before it went all the way down), I fixed it by oiling the between the gears. any ideas???????

What do you mean by the little tab. Does the gripper arm drop the record and continue down to the turntable?

[quote="Guest"]What do you mean by the little tab. Does the gripper arm drop the record and continue down to the turntable?[/quote]
Well... Hears an up date that may be a little easer to explain. Its better than it was, the gripper arm will now go down where it should (i test it with out a record tho because it still just drops it) however it acts as if the gripper arm is'nt going down fast enough. I have cleaned some gears and oiled and greased different things and it improved slightly. Now I will do my best to explain this. When looking at the gripper arm while it is standing still their are 2 natches, one on ether side of the part that slides in and out when the record is grabbed. When the arm picks up the record it then goes up, turns, (in this case the B side so it lays down on the side where the arm and the needle are and the arm and needle go over it) starts to go down and the natch is suppose to fit into a piece that is to the left of the turntable, mine is cutting it short (like its not going fast enough or getting stuck somewhere), it goes down all the way but the record falls out when it hits that spot. I am sorry for the long explanation but thats as specific as i can get , I appreciate any help that any one can give me

Hi! I've experienced this many times. The problem is either one of two things - one, the gripper assembly will need to be dis-assembled (all the way to the trunion and gripper spring). Most likely the original grease has finally become gummy. You can test to see if this is the problem simply by removing the records near gripper bow out of the basket, use a hair dryer to heat up the gripper. (The reason to remove the records is to avoid the heat from warping them). Run the mech. If the gripper works correctly after heating up, good luck, time to get dirty and pull that gripper assembly apart, clean, re-lube, reassemble. This is about a 2-3 hour job. TAKE PICTURES BEFORE YOU DISASSEMBLE !! You will also need a punch to remove the split pin that holds the gripper bow in place.

If the heat test does not work, you may have a gripper gear worn or out of time. Also check the left/right toggle to be sure it is switching from A to B side correctly. Sometimes this occurs when the toggle does not complete the shift from left to right or vice versa.

Good Luck - Bert J.
(28 years experience with jukes)