1964 Rockola 414s - Over-Travel (Gear Jam) When Placing Record on Platter

Hello,

Long time listener, first time caller.

I've been lurking as a guest in these forums for about a year and half, tinkering with my 414s since I purchased it. This community is truly amazing and has been an incredible resource for me (along with my occasionally trusty service manual) while I've gotten my machine up and working.

She's been (mostly) behaving and playing records here in my bar in Chicago, IL, but I've come across a new issue that I've not been successful at solving quite yet.

After making a selection, the machine is properly locating the record, picking it up, and moving it to the turntable platter. However (and again, this just started recently), when it places the record on the turntable, the gears are over-traveling and causing them to slip out of alignment. This jams the gears (and, in turn, the motor), while also causing the gripper arm to re-grip the record due to the gear slippage.

I'm assuming that there's an issue with one of the three micro-cams, as they seem to be the triggers for the starting and stopping of the gears in the correct place. As you're aware, the service manual can be a bit hard to follow on occasion, and while I was able to understand the adjustment of Micro Cam No. 1 back when I first got the machine up and working, I'm having a heck of a time understanding how to properly adjust No. 3 and why that would suddenly become and issue after 8 months of mostly trouble-free play.

My apologies for being long-winded, and for taking guesses when my experience level is so low. I've reset the gears to their correct alignment multiple times, and the issue persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I've learned enough about this machine to be dangerous but I'm still working to increase my knowledge to a level that I could call an understanding.

Thanks in advance. I'm looking forward to your advice!

-Chris

Chris: Welcome. I've just gone through what you may be experiencing twice. Check my posts for the Rockola 459 and 442. The gripper release gear, Micros 1 & 3, and the interlock relay combine to either get this right or cause real [problems.
Patrick

Hi
The cam that sits over the micro switches may need adjustment or may be loose, I have seen gripper motor over travel when the cam is not sitting tight. The sequence starts with switch 1 and so on to 3. When no 3 falls into the cam groove this should stop the gripper motor in combination with the interlock relay. The best way to view it would be to loosen the gripper motor and cycle the mechanism by hand so you can see if the cam Is operating the micro switches correctly. Then it could also be a faulty micro switch.
clones