What to adjust?

I just acquired 3 jukebox's from a guy who said they didn't work. A Rowe R86, Rowe Crestwood console and a NSM Century 21e. After messing with the R86 for a few hours, cleaning and inspecting for loose plugs and broken wires, I eventually found a place where a mouse chewed up some wires. The keyboard wasn't working because the buttons were all stuck in. I used a can of electrical parts cleaner and freed them up. The top row of buttons work (numbers 1-5) but the bottom row doesn't work at all. Coin mech works but bill changer is showing fault code 6 (don't know what that is).

The problem I am working on now is that when it starts to play the records it doesn't seem to want to advance across the record. It will start to play but then just wants to skip. I have tried it on over a dozen records and it does the same thing on all of them. I purchased a new needle and that didn't help. I find that if when the record starts to play I can gently blow on the arm and it will play the entire record without a skip. I don't have a manual for this machine so I don't know where to oil or what to adjust. Am I on the right path? Could this issue be caused by a bad adjustment or could it be a bigger problem?

Take the stylus out and watch the arm... does it freely move to the center? you need to figure out what the hangup is?

Sorry to say it but the best you can do with that crummy tonearm and bearing is to make sure that the lift finger (to the left) is completely clearing the pointed nylon bolt. then check if there is a an anti skate magnet on a post to the left of the arm, try removing that if it is there. Also, remove the arm assembly and flush out any old lube in the vertical bearing and clean off the arm post as well, then relube with a light oil (10-20wt). Check for any drag from the arm cables, though I doubt that is your problem here.

I had five of the R-90-93 machines in the late 80's and early 90's, Great sounding machines -awful tonearms. The recommended tracking of 5-6 grams was ridiculous given that the 1100 arm tracked perfectly at 2G.

I saw dozens of these machines and hideaways at Manny's and Betson in NJ many had pennies and nickels taped to the top of the arm and it was not unusual to hear one of this series get stuck on location.

If all else fails, be careful as to what stylus you use. The proper one for that series is designed for record changer service and many copy needles are too compliant to work w/out bottoming and cantilever deflection. Get an original Shure.

Rob/NYC

IMHO....Your TA(tone arm) is actually hanging up. In my 32 years of working on only ROWE jukes I have never adjusted the weight of a TA. This problem is the kind 'an old pro' needs to see. Start with the tone arm cam and its adjustment. The TA wires can hang up the arm from moving properly. Anybody who puts extra weight on the cartridge end isn't doing their job.

Hello Casketmaker,

The last thing you want to do is lubricate anything on that Rowe Ami R-86.
You need to get a manual and check all of the tone arm adjustments especially the position of the tone arm cam that it is set up per the manual, it could be that the tone arm cam is damaged or that the tone arm collar is not set correctly on the shaft.

There is nothing wrong with the Rowe Ami tone arms other than being set up incorrectly by so called engineers or using the incorrect cartridge.

Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Alan, I have to cordially disagree on this one, the design here was poor and retrograde. To -have- to use 6g (or more) tracking along with a stiff cantilever stylus on an arm designed in 1977 was ridiculous.

Seeburg spe'd 2, 2-1/2 in 1966 (I use these assemblies today) and for that matter Rowe's 1100 changer can do 1 -1/2 as far back as 1963 if you replaced the Shure M77. I have two MM1 hideaways running at 2g on location for decades with no hopping or deflection.

With the exception of soldering/connector problems on the boards, the later Rowe's robotics were excellent, the arm bearing and bias were a problem.

Regards, Rob

Hello Rob,

You must have got them set up wrong! any I work on I set them up with a tracking weight of 2.5 grammes like I would do on a 1100 or 1200 mechanism with the M44 cartridge or the M44-7 that I fit these days.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Guy's,
My experience with the later Rowe tone arms, in commercial use, has been "no problems". In home use, I have seen various problems, mostly caused, IMHO, by "people". These include improper shipping (failure to "tie it down"), and some "sticking" problems. The sticking problems have been caused by the following--or a combination of the following. "Gummy" grease (installed by the factory ?), "Missing record detector wire" becoming stiff, tone arm wires being stiff, and, the "helper spring" ( copper on the older ones, nylon on the later ones) either being bent, broken, or loosing tension. I have also seen a few of the plastic cams broken ( "human help"--I suspect)--and my favorite ( a remarkably large number of times)--"someone" had turned the cartridge around in it's mounting bracket ! I have never had to set the tracking force higher then 2.5 gm---I have also seen a flock of bad aftermarket needles--I still use only the gen-u-whine Shure's. Ron Rich

I'll second what Ron says about the el cheapo knockoff needles. They're no good. I only use genuine Shure needles.

I have been using the Swiss substitute needles on Rowe Ami jukeboxes for the last 30 years and never had a problem, I know this in not the case on other makes of jukeboxes.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Just my two cents.
I had a similar problem on my R-74. What had happened was that the spring loaded lever that rides on the tone arm cam had actually worn a groove into the cam. The tone arm could track only half way across the record before the back end hit the lever, causing it to skip. You cold use a new cam or adjust the set point of the lever on the cam so that it can wear a new groove in after playing 500000 records. Hope this helps.

Or, you could do as I have done a few times--fill the "groove" with JB Weld, file smooth and run---
Ron Rich

I did see those grooves on machines in the shops, but never had that problem. On the two hideaways that I use I added thick shrink wrap tubing on that cam to prevent this and it has held up well.

This however is -not- what afflicts the later arms. in those cases it is the bearings.

Rob

Yes the shrink wrap on the alloy cam is a solution or you can put it on the lever both will sort out the problem after of course checking the adjustments which would be now out.

Ron I like the idea of the weld product or you could do the same with that two part putty that sets like rock.

Casketmaker did you get a manual and sort out the problem?

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK