Phonoland

I bought a Ami Continental 2 recently , the owner said it worked fine then after the move , the jukebox wouldn't play records anymore. He should have read the sticky about moving these.
Plugged it in and it lights up nicely and hums. It is very complete and the wiring looks very good , I dropped a quarter in and the read light comes on "enter selection" pushed some buttons.
The only thing that ever happened was the bar behind the magazine spun to a new position, the magazine never rotated.
I do have a manual on the way.
In the meantime does any one have a suggestion?

Thanks Gregg

Gregg,
My "suggestion" is-- un-plug it till you have the manual---so you can use the manual's terms for items therein--and we might just understand what a "bar behind the magazine is" ??
Also, you might note exactly where it is in the cycle, or what is jammed up-
Ron Rich

Hi,
I had the same thing recently on my Conti 2 ( See my previous post )
It was a sprag relay in the search unit where the contacts were slightly out so not "Contacting" after selection made.
If you open the front down and open the grey box and you will see the 2 wiper boards . To the right is a sprag relay / contacts that fires the search relay so it rotates and makes your selection .

Hope this makes sense , if not I let me know and I will try and explain further.

Ok I have a manual now.

Is it called the Scan control armature ? (pictured closest object to the rear?) , it rotated a couple of times when I pushed selection buttons.

Doesn't even do that anymore, Im Guessing it was stopped by a pin

Let me know what to try next

Thanks Gregg

amiview by TREEPORK, on Flickr

JackosJukes wrote:Hi,
I had the same thing recently on my Conti 2 ( See my previous post )
It was a sprag relay in the search unit where the contacts were slightly out so not "Contacting" after selection made.
If you open the front down and open the grey box and you will see the 2 wiper boards . To the right is a sprag relay / contacts that fires the search relay so it rotates and makes your selection .

Hope this makes sense , if not I let me know and I will try and explain further.

Thanks for the response

I will try that tomorrow

will let you know

Gregg

Hi Gregg,
You have me confused--I see nothing about a "scan--armature" on that page--and as far as I recall,the scan control is located in the front section ? Look at the sequence of events in your manual--and-oh, /BTW--be sure that phonograph is UN-plugged, or you MAY be burning up a motor ( Diga check fuse sizes--and for "blown fuses" ???) !!! Ron Rich

Ron Rich wrote:Hi Gregg,
You have me confused--I see nothing about a "scan--armature" on that page--and as far as I recall,the scan control is located in the front section ? Look at the sequence of events in your manual--and-oh, /BTW--be sure that phonograph is UN-plugged, or you MAY be burning up a motor ( Diga check fuse sizes--and for "blown fuses" ???) !!! Ron Rich

This the part that was spinning in the back , what is that called?

Thanks for the advice , I only leave it for a minute at a time

thanks Gregg

amiview1 by TREEPORK, on Flickr

Ron , I think he means the "Select pin pushers" ?

Gregg , after a selection is made they spin then a solenoid fires to push the selected pin in.....is that the bit you are talking about ( with little hammer ends !! )

This is not your problem , don't touch it or you will start putting them out and wont hit correctly ....... As with most things on a jukebox of this age - it is all relays and contacts - your problem will nearly always be one of these if it works one day and not the next .

As Ron says , read the manual ( at least 5 times before it makes ANY sense !! ) look at the machine , read the manual again twice them start playing then come back here and tell us what you have broken ...... lol ! !

Hi Jack,
I had assumed the same thing--however, after almost 50 years of attempting to help ( even so called "pro's", who earned their living fixing jukeboxes), I attempt to NEVER assume anything --- Almost every-time I violate this, I find I have assumed, incorrectly ! Therefore, unless I have a clear understanding of what is being said ( which STILL can be wrong !), I tend to with-hold any advice, as I do not want to be responsible for anything being "MORE broken".
I LOVE your advice to "--read the manual, then come back and tell us what you have broken"--wish I had thought of that !--I usually just write "RTFM"---Ron Rich

JackosJukes wrote:Hi,
I had the same thing recently on my Conti 2 ( See my previous post )
It was a sprag relay in the search unit where the contacts were slightly out so not "Contacting" after selection made.
If you open the front down and open the grey box and you will see the 2 wiper boards . To the right is a sprag relay / contacts that fires the search relay so it rotates and makes your selection .

Hope this makes sense , if not I let me know and I will try and explain further.

Okay I have a key now , so I can open the front.

I looked at the wiper boards , the one on the right looks clean and the contact brushes seem to be making good contact.

This box was moved and laid down , is there something else I can look for that maybe got bumped out of position?
Here are some pics showing what position it is stuck in.

It hums

If "laid down", without taking any pre-cautions, like bolting the components for shipping, you MAY have destroyed that jukebox ?
My suggestion is to locate a "local Pro", that knows that model phono, before you plug it in again. It's "stuck" at least partly, in "play position". Ron Rich

Ron, I don't think the machine has been "destroyed"....

"ransome" -It appears that the mech has fully entered play mode. If so it also appears that the tonearm is too far to the right. That indicates that it got jostled out of the cam lobe that guides its action. When that happens the cam will try to move and jam against the cam followers on the arm. Typical of a machine transported on it's back.

First, try lifting the arm assembly right at the rear at the pivot point, if jammed you may feel a bit of resistance in lifting it. Be persistent but don't force. if you get it to rise about an inch or so, turn it leftward so that the pickup is over approx where a record starts. Move it back and forth and see if the arm assembly drops down at the pivot point. If it does it should now be free to follow a record. However it may have jammed just before that point so, carefully apply power and see if the mech now finishes it's cycle and goes into either play mode or returns the gripper over the magazine. Remove power immediately if it doesn't seem to move.

Whether it now cycles or not, it is necessary that the mech be lubed and examined for any further work needed.

--Remove the dome. This comes off by first removing the "bib" under the title board (one screw) with that off, there is a small setscrew that holds the dome's flat tail. Loosen that till the dome can be pulled outward and off -watch out for the dome supports.

--Remove the turntable and the silver screws that fasten the mech cover. Be careful in removing it to not damage the pickup or tonearm wiring.

The gripper motor is an AC motor to the left of the turntable.

About the hum, it would be helpful to those here if you can determine where the hum is coming from. The possibilities are:

--Latch bar solenoid in the keyboard. AMI sort of reversed the normal protocol in that the solenoid is always energized when the machine is on. It only releases when credit is applied.

--Light ballasts. the Continental 2's have 5 ballasts (IIRC).

--Jammed motors. the only likely cause of hum is the AC gripper motor. The small DC one that drives the magazine will blow the Low-DC quickly if it is jammed (if the correct fuse is used).

--Amplifier. This is generally a bad sign that something is either drawing too much power from the power supply, or the filter caps are too old and dried up to work properly. Unplug that amp and don't try to use it again till it has been serviced.

Rob-NYC

Rob,
I hope not, but I have seen a number of "Conti's" ( and also a number of "other brands"), that were, for all practical purposes, "destroyed", by moving, and failing to follow the Mfg's. "moving suggestions" ! Seems, IMHO, the "Conti's" were amongst the worst, in this regard. Ron Rich

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Rob-NYC wrote:Ron, I don't think the machine has been "destroyed"....

"ransome" -It appears that the mech has fully entered play mode. If so it also appears that the tonearm is too far to the right. That indicates that it got jostled out of the cam lobe that guides its action. When that happens the cam will try to move and jam against the cam followers on the arm. Typical of a machine transported on it's back.

First, try lifting the arm assembly right at the rear at the pivot point, if jammed you may feel a bit of resistance in lifting it. Be persistent but don't force. if you get it to rise about an inch or so, turn it leftward so that the pickup is over approx where a record starts. Move it back and forth and see if the arm assembly drops down at the pivot point. If it does it should now be free to follow a record. However it may have jammed just before that point so, carefully apply power and see if the mech now finishes it's cycle and goes into either play mode or returns the gripper over the magazine. Remove power immediately if it doesn't seem to move.


Rob-NYC

Rob-NYC
I took your advise and played around with the tone arm assembly. It will pick up the record and put the record away , the turntable is going very slowly. The amp is live and sounding ok.

It is playing every record seemingly in order , How do I clear the memory on this box.

Rob-NYC
Thanks for taking the time to construct the lengthy response to help me fix this Box , It is getting very close to working I think.

Click on the YouTube link to see a video of how it is working at this point



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyuFZtf-h-A

Thanks Gregg

Gregg, the T-T proble can be:

-The idler puck is not actually inside the rim of the table.

- The motor mount grommets (rubber) are dried out and have fallen apart allowing the motor to sag and not make contact with the idler.

-The idler puck is totally hardened and can't get traction. Probably not the cause if it was working recently.

- Oil has coated the idler and/or T-T inner rim. Clean with rubbing alcohol.

As for the selections, open the rear doors and look at the large wheel with the pins in it. Each pin represents a record side. When they are punched inward toward the front of the machine the record side that pin represents is selected.

Carefully reach around and press all the pins toward the back of the machine -the non-selected state.

Rob