Location: Castle Pines, Colorado
Symptom: At the end of record play, the gripper arm would start to return the record to the magazine without actually gripping the record.
This one stumped me for a while. If I turned off the gripper motor and turned it by hand, the gripper arm worked just fine. But if I energized the motor and ran it at normal speed, the gripper arm would miss the record, leaving it on the turntable.
It turned out to be a lubrication issue. The old oil/grease was just gummy enough work fine at hand speed, but not work at normal speed. There are two gears, side by side, with one gear mounted on the shaft of the other. See 12 and 13 below. Oiling between the two gears and getting some oil down on the shaft fixed the problem.
The cooler temperatures of winter seem to cause a lot of problems with both jukeboxes and pinball machines. Although pinball machines don’t use as much lube as jukeboxes, in both cases old gummy lubrication gets more gummy in cooler temperatures.
Gripper Arm Assembly. Click for larger.
Recently acquired a Rock-Ola Bubbler Model CD8C Ser # 952301 Mfg 02-16-04 at a yardsail. Looked brand new (Really!). All electronics, sound CD selection works. Was missing gripper turnover gear 34312 and gripper release gear. Have new in hand. All lubed and now looking for directions align once installed. Top Dead Center to borrow a phrase. Any docs/guidance/pointers to would be appreciated.
Thanks, …Cal