Rowe AMI MM-2 Help

Hi,
I just picked up my first jukebox. It was sold to me as working but when i got it home it was not fully functional.
It will select and play a record if forced but will not select and play from the buttons. When I make a selection the wiper blades just keep spinning until I turn off.
I have done some minor repairs on arcades and pinball machines but never a jukebox. Any help would be great!
Attached are some pictures

When the search motor run continuously it is caused by the wipers never hitting a 'hot" trace.

Causes are:

Worn wipers. ---Slightly-- flex the plastic holder to see that the wipers stay in contact with the traces. be careful as the plastic may be brittle.

inadequate contact at the edge connector on the search unit. The lower edge on your unit looks not to be fully on the board. Try pressing it to the left to fully seat it. Be careful not to press it outward or inward and crack the board. Also, the individual fingers can become spread and not make good contact.

Dirty keyboard or broken carry-through contacts.

Keyboards anywhere near this age need to be washed. I remove the latch solenoid, spray diluted floor stripper on it while working the buttons. This is followed by a rinse in hot, flowing water and dried with a high pressure blower (i use an electrolux vac w/clean hose and crevice too). After washing I place a drop of 20wt oil on the metal shafts of each button and the latch spline and linkage.

Any one of those may solve the problem, but they should all be checked and washing should be done.

BTW: Do yo have a service manual? What amp is in there. There were two transistor types offered; a "50 watt" and a 100w. These amps had thermal runaway problems and often the heatsinks idled hot. I have seen them replaced, somewhat awkwardly, with tube amps.

Rob-NYC

Hello Nitty,

Welcome to the forum.

I would be inclined to check and clean the following:-

On the keyboard locate R1 & R5, they should be under a small plastic cover, if it is lace remove the cover and instect these two open contact relays for mechanical operation. Once checked clean the tips of the open & closed contacts by pulling a paper taper between the contacts (do not use any spay cleaner or anthing abrasive such as sand or emery paper).

On the Search Unit locate K1 & K2 open relays (these are located on each side of the of the search unit. Again check them for mechanical operation and clean the contact tis with your paper taper.
I would also clean the front of the search unit PCB, this is best done using a pencil rubber (eraser) to remove any tarnish and then wipe with a lint free cloth.
I Would also insect the pcb for any cracks in the tracks, if you find any then these can be bridged if outside the wiper circle, I use 30 amp fuse wire, remember if you find any cracks then because this is adual sided board you wold also have to bridge any cracks also on the back of the board.

Please let us know how you get on.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Thank you both for the quick replies. The edge connector is definitely loose towards the bottom half. Looks like I will try to replace that first. And the whole thing needs a good cleaning for sure.
I do have a manual will have to check if its 50 watt" and a 100w. And also what type of edge connector to get.

2 more questions
Whats paper taper?
And in the service manual it says there is refrigerant / freon can in the coin door. What the heck was that used for?

Thanks again

Hi Nitty,

A paper taper is a folded over strip of paper (copy or writing paper) similar to a taper you would light a fire with.

The can will have gone and more than likely the air horn that was attached to it, this was used as an alarm if someone broke into the cashbox, the key turned would deactivate the alarm.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Hi Alan,
Well, maybe --a friend of mine found a working, can and horn combination, much to his dis-pleasure about 2 years ago, while drilling the cash box lock -- Ron Rich

Nitty wrote:Thank you both for the quick replies. The edge connector is definitely loose towards the bottom half. Looks like I will try to replace that first. And the whole thing needs a good cleaning for sure.
I do have a manual will have to check if its 50 watt" and a 100w. And also what type of edge connector to get.
Thanks again

No-no, you do not replace that edge connector. Just press it further onto the board. It is sometimes necessary to tighten the individual contact fingers with a tiny flat blade screwdriver....but just seat connector properly for now.

Rob

Hi Nitty,

I agree with Rob, that would be a slippery slope.

As Rob says you can tweek the connections to make them tighter, I tend to remove the induvidual connections in turn and close them slightly with a miniture pair of long nose pliers.
If you look closely at the plastic plug there is some movement on the plug (up and down) so make sure all the tracks are fully in line with the conections.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

ok. I wont replace the connector. The bottom of the edge connector is definitely loose. I will try to tighten the individual contact fingers.