Rock-Ola 464 Help

Chris,
Which motor are you talking about ? Please use the names in the Service Manual ! Both the gripper and basket motors are similar, but not directly interchangeable. Different brand motors were used, but I have never seen any "gearbox" problems in any of them--If you are talking about the AC write-in motor, I would advise you not to "mess" with it, as once apart it is VERY difficult to re-align correctly. I use a "Plastic safe-safety solvent" to clean things, and SAE # 20 wt. motor oil to re-lube. For grease I use CRC/StayLube multi graph (brand) hi pressure grease--very, very lightly. Ron Rich

Hey Ron,

Sorry I'm at work and don't have the manual in front of me but the gear box I'm referring to is the write-in motor which is very small and is attached to a small metal box that has gears in it and on the outside is one gear with fine teeth to turn the write-in "arm". I haven't had the box itself apart as you can't unless you un-rivet it. It has what looks to be two brass "rivets" to hold it together where you could put two bolts through and the other end has two bolts which help hold the dc motor on that turns the small gear that fits inside the "gear" box. But I think this "gear" box is just really stuck cause at one point last night it did move but it just locks up at some point. Unless me taking off the dc motor and taking out the gear contributed to the already stuck gears in the metal box. But I don't see how that is possible since it is a simple setup where the motor sits in the "housing" and is held by the upper and lower brackets and just has the small gear going inside the metal gear box; like a brushless motor. If you look here: http://www.jukeboxparts.co.uk/index.php ... uctId=1328 the gearbox and motor assembly looks just like it. Let me know where you think I should go from here.

I'll have to look around for some solvent of the type you mentioned and the grease as well.

Thanks,

Curtis

Curtis,
Oil the armature shaft and the output shafts, and that will usually "fix" those motors-yes, you can take the gearbox apart, but I sure do not advise it ! Also, Do NOT loosen the the stator, as they are real tough to re-align !
But--none of the above has any thing to do with your read-out problems, above ??
Ron Rich

Update - Since the search motor was not working properly I decided to take apart the gear box that the motor actually turns and boy was it just gummed up with old grease. If not for the small brass cog being mostly stripped out, this would work just fine after I cleaned it. It did turn the search arm but it will always start to slip andbind due to that brass cog being stripped. I have pictures in case anyone was curious.

Now onto to good news. Ron you were correct, the griper arm was seaized just enough to not allow the motor to do its thing. I loosened the motor away from the gears and it turned just fine. So now I need to clean the gears that are at the end of th gripper arm that make it move over the turntable and then back again. When I got that to move though it seemed that everything else worked. The needle did come over the record and the sound system is just fine and very loud if turned up. The gripper arm doesn't grab the record off the turntable correctly but I think after some lube and possibly some alignments? this will be fixed. But until I get a new search motor gear box I don't think I can really do a 100% system check to see if it grabs the right record from the holder according to what was selected.

So with all that said, Ron what do you think would be the best way to clean the gripper asmbly and re-lube? Do I need to take it off or is there a specific cleaner that will work? If there is a cleaner, is their a chain store that you know of that carries it? Thanks for your help.

Almost there!

Curtis

Curtis,
In 99.9 % of the jammed gripper cases, I do NOT have to take anything apart--just saturate it with SAE # 20 wt. oil.
I soak every "joint" and bearing surface, and especially try to get it to soak in between the two gears on the right. These MUST "slip past" each other, in order for it to work properly. If, when it's about to lift the record off the TT, it misses, hold your finger on the tip of the gripper LIGHTLY, and it will operate correctly. You may need to do this one hundred times--both sides, while adding more oil to between those gears, but it will (99.9 %) work ! Ron Rich

Thanks for your help Ron! I'm looking forward to loading this up and enjoying it!

Curtis

Ok here's an update: got the new-er write-in selection assembly, bolte up and it works great. Thanks for the best person to get parts from, by the way. But...none of the selections seem to take. When the digits are pressed everything works but it seems like the carriage coil doesn't activate to hit the proper selection. It will once in a while work when I select the second side of a record but never on the first side. The write out works fine. I can manually select one and it finds it no problem, then resets the switch. Could the contacts and the wipers be too dirty to apply te power for the carriage coil? Or do I have a defective P.C control board? Note: if I need to clean is denatured alcohol and thin layer of petroleum jelly still the preferred method?

Thanks,

Curtis

Curtis,
Everyone has their own way of doing this--What I do is use a plastic safe safety solvent, and saturate the disc with it, then wipe it all off. Then take a biz card and saturate the card and allow the "slip contacts" to "run over" the card. After it is clean, I use DeOxIt on the printed contacts. Ron Rich

Ron - would you think it safe to use the contact cleaner and the deoxit on the push button contacts? Reason I ask is with all the wires and exposed resistors I didn't want to spray something that I'm not supposed to. They look very oxidized and I think that is my problem when records are not selected right away. The write in arm moves fine but sometimes does not engage the solenoid properly to activate the selection. After loading a bunch of records and just trying to play random ones it improved but still not 100% more like 50%. That's when I looked at the contacts under the buttons.

Thanks again for all your help. I truely love this thing.

Curtis

Curtis,
I would not do so--you can verify the "conductivity" of the single switches using an ohm meter, or #112 lamp with one AA cell, wired in series.
If I find them making "poor" contact, I prefer to remove the keyboard, remove the "latch bar solenoid" , from it, and wash the switch banks with ammonia, and hot water. Rinse well with hot water, and allow to completely dry ( Use a heat gun/hair dryer if you like). Then re-test the switches. If they are still suspect, you might try a DROP of "DeOxIt" on the bad switch(s)--or you will need to dis-assemble and clean the slides ( a "last resort" for me, as doing so does remove the silver plating !)- Ron Rich

Update:

I used some deoxit and that seemd to help with my write on sweepers and selections. The write-in assembly still not 100% with activation of the solenoids via the number buttons but I have one more thing to adjust that might help that. There are some gaps on some switches that need to be checked. One of the contacts was bent way out so that could be contributing.

But the good news is I replaced the rubber motor grommets to get rid of the whow whow whow I was hearing. Good thing I did too they were shot. I also got a new needle and it is very clear. Then I installed my new used upper center glass since the original was busted out. More and more I'm on my way to really just plug and play.

Ron - my left side of the speakers is not as loud as the right. I adjusted the balance to see if it was out butno effect as to equal sound levels from both channels. Do you think I need new amp circuits/parts?

Curtis

Curtis
That problem can be caused by "anything" in the "train", starting with the cartridge, thru the amp, cross-over network (if used), to a bad speaker.
You just need to eliminate things till you find the fault area. Ron Rich

Ron,

It's been awhile since I have been able to work on my Juke with summer and some if the other projects I have been spending most of my time with. But tonight I had a little time and decided to start trouble shooting my amp/speaker problem. Well, months ago a friend and me moved the Juke from my garage into my house. Now when it was out in the garage both channels did work but the left was very weak. Now the right is completey non-existent and te left seems fine. I started to check for something that may have jiggled loose but I didn't see anything in my first inspection. I checked continuity from the needle connections to where it plugs into the preamps and everything checked. I open up the amp area to see anything obivious that might be loose of damaged but nothing. Then I started to check the lines going to the speakers, easiest ones were the woofers. I noticed a lot of electrical tape and took some off to find what is in the picture. There is another spot in the second picture in the right that has the same soldering job. Do you have any idea as to why someone would do this? I'll keep checking wires and will need to pull it out to check the lines right behind the back panel but I thought I would ask you to see if you had run into anything similiar.
Thanks,
Curtis

Curtis,
Just a WAG--some "person" wanted to "add speakers" to the system ?
Ron Rich

Ron,

Hmm..interesting thought. I didn't notice that the output from the amp from the top comes down to the junction seen in the bottom picture lower righthand side (above) and then from there it is split; one set going to the woofers (the first picture's solder debacle) the the other set going to the back. What exactly does that panel in the back (located right behind back access panel near the bottom of the box) do for the speakers? Because when I unhooked that junction, taking out the set of wires that ran to the back and just hooked up the wires going straight to the woofers, there was no sound. I'll post some more pictures tonight so you can see exactly what I am talking about. I'm hoping there is just a loose wire or something simple to fix rather than having to fiddle with the amp section.

Thanks Ron,

Curtis