Odd carriage behavior M100A

Hi All,

Beating my head bloody on my M100A. I have gotten the clutch to do its thing and I can now pull and play a record with the unit just pulling the a single record in and out without playing it forever.

Now I am trying to trace down a problem with the carriage. If I play the most right record (standing in front of the unit) it works fine. If I play the most left record I get really odd behavior. It will pull the record and play it. Then when the needle is done and goes to the end the thing just sits there and does not remove the record.

Now, if I take the record magazine off and trip that same slot the system will cycle complete over and over again until I manually cancel that pin.***

If I push back on the lever in the front I can get the record to be removed. It then just sits there and spins. The clutch is never engaged to start the movement. If I reach to the back side with the power off and pull on a couple of lever arms I can get the thing to engage and manually turning the thing get it to move.

2 or 3 pins back from the left and everything works fine.

Anyone have any idea what is going on?

Since John is dead i have not found anyone in the San Francisco Bay Area that I can get to come over and take a look. I have everything out on my bench except the coin system, but I can credit myself to get the thing going. My buttons are not working correctly but I will deal with that once I get the mechanism working with me manually throwing the pins.

One more thing, I have the mechanism to the full right on the bolts and I still do not have the arm dead center when it is lifting up to bush up a record. It is in the correct slot, but at the far left of it. I have tried messing with the pin bank mounting screws and the selection/cancel plastic screws to better center the thing but without much luck.

If there something I am missing to better center the thing?

Thanks, James



***Note: It seems that without a record physically being played I do not get the cancel solenoid to fire and push the pin bank lever back. If a record is in fact loaded, even if I hold it, then I get the thing to fire and push the pin back. Is it supposed to do that?

Hi James,
I can't determine from what you wrote, but It appears that you may be attempting to make that mech do something it was not designed to do. Unlike most later units, it only should select when going in one direction. If both sides of a record are selected, it should play the "A" side, return the record almost all the way back into the rack, switch motor direction and play the "B" side in sequence. I suspect that you are "hand-detenting", it when scanning in the wrong direction.
As for the alignment problem, I am not 100 % sure on that mech, but I am assuming that it is the same as the 45 rpm mech. On these mechs, you must first check the turntable thrust bearing adjustment. Once that's correct, you need to align the record rack, with the turntable ( use a "non-cupped" flat record for this). Next, you need to align the transfer arm with the record rack--on both ends, and in the center.
Next you need to align the "frog" (contact block) with the pins--once again, on both ends and in the center. Center alignment can be checked by selecting ONE side ( on that mech) of a record, removing the record and allowing the mech to detent it self. If the "no record" trip function is working, just remove that record, if not functioning, just trip it off by hand. If aligned, it will detent at the slot, attempt to play the record, trip off and scan. If it does scan back to the pulled pin, alignment is correct.
And NOW you know why I (almost ) NEVER remove the record rack from any Seeburg--
HTH, Ron Rich

I want to publicly thank Ron.

I asked him if he would drive up to my place, about 1/2 hour from his, and take a look at my M100A.

Ron came up and in a few hours did more to fix the problems with the box, some self induced, that I could do if I had a month. It is now operational and I will put everything back into the case over the next few days.

Although Ron stated that he has only worked on a couple of "A's" over the years, his depth and breadth of knowledge is staggering. He managed to run down things in an almost effortless manner. I learned more in those three hours that I could by reading the service book for a month.

Ron, Thanks again!

James

James,
"No problem"---
Ron Rich

Did you lock up the liquor before Ron showed up?

LOL! - just kidding!

Ron knows his stuff, surely.