Rowe MM 6 Bourbon Street Jukebox

[dpoolepcagc]

Ok I'm new here and looking for some help. My brother in-law who was born mentally handicap has a juke box that his parents got for him. They passed away not too long ago so he now lives with me and I have his jukebox. It is a Rowe MM 6 Bourbon Street. It plays the 45's. Besides some lighting issues. My major concern at the moment is that it doesn't play the song I select. So besides getting help of getting to play the correct songs. Where and how would I start at cleaning and restoring it. I'm not looking to make it look mint. I would however like to get it back to very good condition. It was left in a basement and not used for over 12yrs. I just want to go about cleaning it and restoring it without ruining anything. So any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

[Ken Layton]

First thing is to buy the manuals if you don't already have them. Then follow the lubrication instructions in it.

[dpoolepcagc]

I just ordered the manual. So I will wait impatiently for a few days for it to arrive. It needs a pretty good cleaning first. Lots of dust inside the cabinet. Probably going to gently use a vacuum and compressed air. I ordered replacement lamps already. The upper ones worked but were very old. I just ordered new lamps and starters. Once I get the manual I will check it out and see what I can find out.

[ami-man]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The manual is a good start, remove the complete mechanism, amplifier and any other removeable items and clean the cabinet, both inside and out. To make the front, the title rank and window look its best you are better off striping these down and removing the glasses & trim. The results will be so much better than trying to clean in situ.

Please let us know how you get on with your project.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[dpoolepcagc]

Thank you!,

I just received the manual and am going to start working on it soon.

Any suggestions on cleaning? I planned on using a vac and compressed air.

I will at some point be getting new title labels, selection strips and bulb cover for the bulb the lights up the label sections. It looks like it was clear at one point but appears to suffered some heat damage. I will take pictures soon.

[ami-man]

Take out the mechanism, amplifier, power supply and any of the easely removeable items and vac out the cabinet.

Using warm soapy water wash down the interior, rince and dry down fully.

Strip down the mechanism to clean it, again I prefer just soapy water, inspect all the parts for wear and replace where needed, rebuild and check all adjustments as per the manual.

Only lubricate as indicated in the manual and only sparingly, for example the gripper bow assembly has high melting point grease in the two trunnion sockets only, no other lubrication is required.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[dpoolepcagc]

Thanks for the advice on cleaning. I will be doing that soon.

right off the bat when I got this none of the lights were working. So I ordered new lamps and starters. They are all working now. I also replaced the plug end because it was smashed.

I still need to get the clear plastic the shield the bulb. In the pictures you can see where it looks like it got hot and burnt the plastic. Its brown, cracked and brittle. I also need to find play list labels and the selection strips that go between the labels.

I turned it back on and noticed the following

If I select A1 it plays B1, Select B1 and it plays C1. Any suggestions?

Also the volume control is very touchy. when I turn it it jumps up and down in volume and crackles. but when I stop turning it, it settles and sounds fine.

[ami-man]

Hello dpoolecagc,

You will have to let me have your name.

The best thing to use for diffusing the lights is theatrical gel, you can possible get some from your local theatre or off the internet, get frost which acts similar to frosted glass in windows.

Remove the search unit and make sure that the A side pins are pushed out on the search unit, it will sit on the base of the jukebox whilst testing. If the a side pins do not push out check the impeadence of the A side coil against the B side coil. Clean the R1 & R5 relays contacts which are under the plastic cover in the keyboard also check S1 & S2 on the Search Unit to clean these open and closed contacts on these four relays use a paper taper pulled between the contacts, check for mechanical operation.

The volume control should be a 10k log control, check and replace if needs be.

I would buy a TI-1 up to R-83 turntable (the type with a rubber mat) to protect your records. it is a direct replacement.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[dpoolepcagc]

I will probably get to the relays this weekend. I'm going to clean it first and get it moved inside where I can work on it better. Right now its in the garage and it still in the 90's in Florida. So I need to get it cleaned and inside where I can be more comfortable working on it.

I also didn't mention that in the pictures it showed the lower speakers exposed. I removed the screen and mesh. The metal screen had some surface rust and mold on the mesh. I sandblasted the metal screen and repainted it. I also replaced the mesh but haven't reinstalled until I get everything cleaned.

My name is Darrin by the way

[dpoolepcagc]

I mistyped in my previous reply. When I select A1 it plays C1 and B1 plays D1. So its one complete record off. Could this be that they are loaded wrong?

[dpoolepcagc]

Do these pictures help me find out why this plays one complete record off from what is selected?

[ami-man]

Hi Darrin,

You need to check that the 200 (or 00 mark) on the stop plate assembly behind the search unit is correctly oposite the step in the search unit bracket when the mechanism is at the A1 position. This adjustment is shown in your manual and is the timing of mechanism in essence.

If this is correct then you will have to check that the setup adjustments on the search unit are correct with regards to the A1 position pin punch out coil.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[dpoolepcagc]

Yeah I checked, The 200 is at the 7:00 position and the step is at the 3:00 position when the mech is at A1. I did see this in the manual as well. So I will figure out how to get it lined up correctly

[dpoolepcagc]

Ok I got it to play the correct selection. I have two other minor issues however.

Periodically it will play the same record over and over again. Even if I reject it or have another selection made. It will put the record away and then re-grab the record and play it again.

Also when I open the cabinet the floresent bulb turns off. I'm guessing this is normal so it doesn't shine into your face when looking inside the cabinet. However recently when I close the cabinet it doesn't always come back on unless I close the top and rest it in the closed position. If I force it down so it latches closed the bulb goes out. I'm guessing there is a switch somewhere controlling this and I can not find it lol

[ami-man]

Hi Darrin,

Re the pins not resetting, you may have to strip down the pin assembly on the back of the search unit and clean the pins so they are all freely moving, they should be easy to push back it with your finger. The pawls on the stop plate assembly push the pins back in after the record has been transfered onto the turntable.

The light is faulty it should remain on, check the end caps of the fitting to make sure that the pins on the flourescent are making a good connection.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

[dpoolepcagc]

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the help. All those issues seem to be fixed. Now I have encountered another problem 

I had this playing for about an hour today. The longest I have played it since getting it. After about 45min it would get about 1min into a song and then just stop playing, put the record back and mover to the next selection. Once it started doing this it seemed like it would do it once in a while. I few records would play to its completion and others would stop about a min into it. I then played the record it seems to do it on the most and I could hear about 3-4 clicks happening before the record would stop playing. i couldn't really make out where they were coming from but I could hear them with the unit open. They were separate clicks about 1-2 seconds apart and at the 3-4 click it would stop playing. Almost like the reject button was being pressed.

[ami-man]

Hi Darrin,

I think you need to check all of the reject circuits, maybe even plug a connection off each of them to find if any of the circuits are effected.
Check rear door reject, reject button on the mechanism if there is one, reed switch.

Regarding the presence of clicks, remove the amplifier to take it out of the equation, if you still hear clicks then I would check out the power supply, it sounds like capacitors to me. You need to check that there is not a mechanical issue first.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK