Phonoland

Rock Ola 433, the turntable always turns. Pressing the selections don’t do anything. The gripper picked up a record and returned it, but now stays up at the carriage and does not return. I am assuming the turntable keeps turning until the gripper has gone to home position. Is this correct? If so, is this the typical mechanism needing oil/heat? TIA

Hi
Yes if the machine has not been used in a long time the gripper assembly will need lubrication along with other moving mechanical parts including the basket and gripper motors. The home position is for the gripper arm over the record basket, has the record being released by the gripper? if not try to manually turn gripper motor until record is released and until you cant turn it anymore, once that is done the record basket should start to move and will pick up any further selections, probably best to manually cancel any previous selections made on the wobble plate and clean slip rings on the wobble plate. Will the scan-off-open sliding switch moved to off turn the turntable off? Is there available credits on the machine? No selections could be anything from bad plug connections to dirty relay contacts to dirty switch blades or dirty keyboard contacts. Also you may need to check the three micro switches behind the tone arm and adjust if necessary as they control the whole cycle
clones

It was working perfectly until the last record, which makes me believe it is one of the 3 switches, because why would it completely stop all of a sudden. It did release the record but the gripper stayed at the carriage. Have not checked it yet so don’t know if the scan/cancel/operation switch will move the carriage.

Hi
If the gripper has completed its cycle the basket should start moving so check the basket motor, control box under chassis and play control relay
clones

Another symptom is when a record plays, it plays fine and when the tone arm gets to the end of the record, it won’t go back, but will after a while. When the tone arm finally does go back, the gripper picks up the record and returns it, but the carriage does not go back to home position. My guess is that whatever switch that recognizes the tone arm at the end of the record is a problem, and whatever switch recognizing the tone arm in the home position is a problem. As suggested, I looked for the 3 microswitches behind the tone arm but could not find them.

Hi
There is a blade switch behind the tone arm which can be adjusted , the switch when closed will operate the cycle in reverse. Also the record can be rejected by pressing the button beside the volume control for a few seconds. If the record doesn't reject there may be a problem with the interlock relay contacts and reverse relay coil in the control box. Also the reverse relay is part of the sequence of operations so that the gripper motor stops and the basket motor starts. Also If the slip rings on the read out side of the wobble plate are dirty this may prevent the read out arm moving and hence the basket as well
clones