Location: Lakewood, CO
Symptoms: Needle not contacting record, plays wrong selections.

We selected a record and the needle hovered about 1/8 inch above it.  I moved the tone arm and felt it binding.  I put some silicone lubricant on the tone arm pivots.  I also noticed the tone arm audio cable seemed to be a little tight which added to the binding.  I loosened the cable clamps and gave it another 1/4 inch of slack.

Usually when a Wurlitzer is not making the correct selections, the problem is either dirty switch contacts in the keyboard, or a lubrication issue with the pre-selection arm or disk at the bottom of the mechanism. Since this was probably the cleanest unrestored jukebox I’ve come across, I didn’t suspect dirty switch contacts.

On the ’04 models the pre-selection disk (I don’t know what Wurlitzer calls it) is used to differentiate the letter selections.  I call it pre-selection because this disk the first thing that begins moving when making a selection.  The disk rotates into position determined by a couple of solenoids, then fires one of the numbered solenoids visible around the edge of the mechanism. This disk rides on 3 nylon wheels, which often stop turning with age. I lubricated the nylon wheels and got them turning again.  The jukebox now made the correct selections.

One additional item was that I cleaned the volume control with potentiometer cleaner.