Phonoland

Bear with me, I'm a noob.

I recently purchased an AMI / Rowe jan 200 diplomat (from 1965). Before I bought it, the gentleman plugged it in and we listened to a few 45s. To travel, we laid it on its back. Once home, it no longer plays.

The power comes on. The lights come on. The carousel will turn using scan under on/off/scan. However, once I have pressed credit and entered a selection, nothing else happens. I have looked at schematic because there is a four pronged group of wires (Green, Y, Y, Bl) that aren't connected, but I don't see where this may go or even if it is indeed the cause of the problem.

Any suggestions?

The unit below the selection buttons was loose. I snapped it back into place. The selection keys do not engage and release as they should. The manual mentions something about diodes and an RI unit. This is a foreign language for me.

Need more info--- best if you read the Service Manual first, so you can use terms we all can understand---
What's a "unit below the selection buttons--" ? --
Doubt a diode is bad-- Ron Rich

I'm struggling. The part that was jarred loose in transport is the selector assembly. The keys are pushed down and are making contact, but they are not engaging as they should. When I press the credit button, there is a clicking noise, but I am not sure if that is reaching the selector assembly or if the problem is within the assembly itself.

Hello ava1anche,

The Selector Assembly is the keyboard.
You need to check that the connections from the keyboard are good, there is a couple of connections from the keyboard, make sure that the connection to the search unit is in line at the top and bottom of the connections there can be a bit of play and all the tracks need to be in line.

Due to transportation if you did not lock everything down you could have several connection issues.
You need to establish credit and check that the latchbar solenoid is operating in order to lock the keys.

I suggest that you contact a specialist in your country in order to sort out the issue.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Thanks Alan and everyone. Due to some first rate tinkering and good luck, all is working, shy of a blown bulb. The problem actually was in the credit unit. It had no movement and thus was leading to the buttons not becoming engaged. Once I wiggled it, everything went great . . . . except -

Now when a record plays, the transfer arm has some problem replacing it. It pulls records from the rack fine, they play, but when it tries to return them, the record gets away. The turntable lifts slightly as it should, and the transfer arm itself engages the record, sometimes lifting and then dropping it. I wonder if it perhaps may be some plunger adjustment from below the turntable or if the weight of a record is causing the arm to disengage due to some other issue.

I am getting fairly comfortable with this baby now and welcome any suggestions.

Thanks

If this is the "plastic" type gripper arm and no one has "lubricated it" - in any way, I do a slight "trick" that works every time for me.
Remove one record, and select that space. Stop the gripper mid way with the part that holds the record facing "up". Simply push "in" on that part about 10 times, and allow it to "snap" out. It must "snap". --that's it ! done fixed --- unless some "person" has "lubed" it. In which case, you must remove the gripper assembly, clean out ALL the old lube, using a plastic safe safety solvent, then wipe all parts with a product called "Tri Lube". This is available in both spray and plastic bottles--wet the rag--wipe dry. If this still uses the metal gripper parts, clean as above and use a very light coating of hi pressure molly/graphite based grease.
Have fun--- Ron Rich

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean. The arm does move pretty slow when attempting to return a record. Sometimes, I grips the album and then drops it as though the rear "plunger" at the base of the arm is prematurely withdrawing.

Well,
First of all, it's probably not an "Album", just a "Single" that it's "dropping"--
Second, I have never seen one that "prematurely withdraws". and can not envision how that could happen (although, I admit, my imagination leaves a little to be imagined, at times !) I would suspect that it has not gripped tightly in the first place--OR, the gripper height over the TT has been "re-adjusted" incorrectly, so that the record is not centered within the gripper. when it picks the record up. Ron Rich

Touche.

I plan to take it apart and clean the components this week and see how that goes. Thanks for the chuckle.