new guy with a VM changer problem

Hello all, new guy here. Anyway, as a brief introduction I typically restore old radios, TVs, and other vintage pieces of electronics. But more recently I got into old record changers because a few consoles I have came with them. Three have VM changers in them and hard lessons learned- I got intimately familiar with the buggers because they had to be totally taken apart and cleaned before the worked right.

But I'm certainly no expert by any means. Hence I have come here for advice. I have been restoring a 1947 Magnavox console.
I re-capped it, gave it a once over and so on and thus electronically its in good shape. But the record player has been a royal PITA. Its an earlier moderl VM changer ( I can't recall the model ) but here is a picture of it:


Anyway, I ordered new friction wheels and motor mounts from VM. The player works fine. But the changer mech gets jammed about halfway through the cycle. Just like the others Ive worked on, I cleaned this one up and gave it a lube job. The motor was taken apart and the gunk was cleaned out and it spins smoothly. I also took the spindle out and soaked it in parts cleaned because apparently these are prone to gunking up too.

What I've noticed is that the spindle spring is REALLY hard to depress. What I mean is that it works as it should. It works smoothly. But it seems like there shouldn't need to be that level of effort made to depress the spring. In addition to that, I've slowly turned he mech by hand and something is definitely rubbing in there. What it is I am having a damned difficult time determining. I will try and take some more pics this evening and perhaps that will show a mistake or an issue.

Thanks!

You're probably missing the ball bearing from inside the spindle.
Contact Gary Stork for a replacement, and consult him on your "tinkering".

The early V-M changers had a pusher adjustment in the spindle. Turning the shaft of the push rod adjusted some of the early ones. Others had an adjustment nut on the lever that activates the push rod. The pusher should extend very slightly past the spindle ledge when fully extended. If the push rod is trying to move it farther, it causes the jamming.

Note that the spring has to be strong to retract the record pusher with the weight of a stack of records on the end of it.

Also check that something else is not blocking the change cycle slide from moving to the end of its travel.

Note that in the early changers, an out-of adjustment or binding shutoff lever (activated by the overarm) can jam the change cycle slide. This also happens if the overarm is moved during the change cycle. Later changers have a pivoting gate on the slide to prevent this. But early ones tended to bend the shutoff lever.