rockola 437 ultra

Greetings from Texas. I have been trying to restore my dad's old rockola 437 ultra. I have read a lot and watched a lot of utube because working on these things are really above my grade level, but enjoy the tinkering. I have come to a problem now after getting the thing half way running where the record basket wont go back into the home , or neutral position. It misses the point by about 4 records every time it returns a record and spins and stops. Same thing with selecting a record to play it misses the selected record by about 4 records which tells me the thing is somehow out of alignment. Now when I pull a pin on the readout assembly the arm will find the pin I selected and stop on it, but again the basket after spinning will miss the select pin that was pushed by about 4 records. It is almost as if the geared shaft that runs thru the machine has gotten off somehow even though this was never removed. This is doing the same on both a and b selections. I suspect the misalignment is something to do with the readout carriage. I have cleaned all contacts. I read where maybe it has to do with interlock relay, or optic sensor which I dont think this model has, or a controller card which I dont think this model has either or really know what that is. I was wondering if it might have to do with the wobble and micro switch that is mounted on the right side of the readout assembly up at the top on the right side located at about 1 oclock? If anyone can tell me what direction to look I would appreciate it. What contact makes the record basket know to stop in the home, or neutral position? Thks guys...

see earlier post for details

Hello jewetttx,
the printed circuit board on the read-out side of the selector has 6 tracks. The outside track is used for homing. The motor should stop when the wiper enters the opening in the track. In the home position, the "record playing" indicator is not showing any slection and the wide gap of the basked (where no record is) is positioned directly under the gripper arm.
Best regards
Jürgen

Thank you Sir for that info. Ill check that assembly again closer. Maybe that homing wiper got bent is not touching the wiper track properly?

hey jurgen02....i checked the homing wiper on the outer band and it lines up with the break in the outer band showing that wiper arm is indeed registering and stopping in the neutral or home position on the outer ring break
, but the record basket is still not. Again the the record arm continues to move past the home neutral position of the record basket by about 5 records. I again took the write out assembly off again and cleaned all pins and contacts again. Any suggestions..... it seems if i could manually spin the basket on the stationary shaft and physically line it up in the basket's home position it would be close. Of couse i tried doing this by turning the basket motor stem lining it up but it just goes back to missing the baskets home postion..the gap between the records. About to pull my hair out on this one...

see earlier post. ATTENTION JURGEN02!!

Hello jewetttx,

have you checked the position of the "record playing" indicator on the popularity meter?

To check the mechanical aligment, move the basket into the homeposition by using the scan switch, then leave it on "off". In this position, the indicator must not show any record number, there should be a little mark in this position but I am not sure if this also present on the 437. (Pic1)

If basket and indicator are aligned, check the position of the read-out arm. The main shaft is flattened on one side, so it should not be possible to move it a lot, but better check (Pic2). In the correct position of the read out arm, the homing wiper should be sitting in the gap of the outer track.

In case the basket and the record indicator are not aligned, the basked may have moved on the shaft.
To check this, move the switch to "operate" ant let it finish the homing run. Check if the indicator is now in the home position. On my 1484, the basket is "clamped" on the shaft, it is fixed with 4 screws you can reach from below (Pic3). Should be the same on the 437.

A fine tuning of the read out carriage will be required if you have to move the basked on the shaft. This process is explained in the manual (page17).

Best regards
Jürgen

again thx u for your kindness in trying to help me. i did as u said by scanning and stopping the basket in the home position. i lined the record read out wheel dial to neutral (the wheel that displays how many times records are played) and scanned again stopping the basket in the neutral position over the record gripper arm and it stayed pretty much in line with the record indicator wheel. the wheel was off maybe a tab. one thing about this record indicator wheel i have noticed is that i can almost spin it by hand and place it freely on any number. shouldnt there be some friction on this wheel? im thinking it to might be loose on it's gear shaft. i really think the main culprit is that i think the basket has some how moved on the shaft and i will try to address this. im looking at manual now and trying to see how to loosen the basket up to readjust on shaft . im looking at your pictures..thx for those. please check back with me sir on my issue..thx again

Hello jewetttx,
I think the alignment of the basket can be done by loosening the 4 screws and turning the main gear at the motor shaft (hiding behind the black cable of the gripper motor on my pic3). Before you do this, make sure the read out arm is in it`s home position and sitting correctly in the flattening of the main shaft. It should not be possible to move the popularity meter by hand.
Best regards Jürgen

thk you...ill try that now... i did find that the two allen set screws on the wheel dial was very loose and tighten then. now i work with the baskets 4 screws.. fyi..630pm in jewett texas and 58 degrees :)

i loosened all 4 bolts on both sides of basket , took end basket clip off drive shaft, and tried to reposition basket to match read out on arm on assembly carriage wiper's home or neutral postion but of course couldnt because of the flat edge of the shaft. i wasnt able to turn the shaft any to get any slack. i even took the two long bolt screws out of the basket's tooth gear trying to get some slack but nothing!! theres got to be something im missing and a reason why that basket' s home position wont line up with that carriage readout arm while the arm is in the broken band home position? :(

was just wondering. before i take the record basket completely off to look inside. is there any kind of gear inside the middle of it that might have slipped that might be causing that basket not to line up? im thinking if i cant figure out this problem im going to have to take the whole player system out of the box to work on it closer. something i wasnt wanting to do.

Hello jewetttx,
looks like I am suffering from memory loss about the basket and main gear assembly. Hope some other forum member will have a solution for you. Can you upload some pictures of the read out arm and basket ?
Best regards Jürgen

hey guys..ive been trying to attach pictures to post but they are too big i guess and it wont let me.. if i could get an email address i could send that way. or if someone could tell me how to send the picture file to forum reduced in size..

hope these pictures come thru. the record arm is sitting about three off from the baskets home position and the carriage if you can see the outer wiper is sitting in the home position. im wondering now if there is a gear or cog of some type that is in the center of the record basket that might have moved on the stationary shaft that runs thru it?

Hi Texel,

It's look that you have fixed the selector in a wrong position.

groetjes Piet

Hello jewetttx,

there is nothing exciting in the center of the record basket, the shaft goes straight through.
If the basket is in home position, the flat side of the shaft on the read out side should be horizontal. If this is the case, your basket is aligned corretly on the shaft.

To Piet`s comment: I believe it is not possible to rotate the entire selector, it is attached with 4 screws on the frame with no possibility to make adjustments.

Hard to tell from this angle, but it almost looks like the read out arm is not aligned correctly on the shaft.
When you open screw #1, can you rotate the read out arm on the shaft so the contacts are in parallel to the flat side of the shaft? On the right side, a picture of my 434 waiting for cleaning

Screw #2 is for the fine tuning I mentioned earlier. The screw slot is damaged, but I don`t think a wrong adjustment can explain such a big misalignment. However, you should fix this to make the fine tuning later.

I sent you a PN with my email address in case you still want to send a movie or high resolution pictures.

Best regards
Jürgen

Jurgen,

The selector is fixed with 4screws, that's correct. When the seletor was removed for service and cleaning, than you must fix the selector in the same holes !

regards Piet

HAPPY DAYS!!!!!!!KUDOS AND MANY THANKS TO PIET Oams AND JURGEN02 FOR FIGURING MY PROBLEM OUT FOR ME. Come to find out it was the selector assembly mounted to the frame in the wrong holes. Now I indeed took this assembly off twice to clean contacts , pins, and bands, but was always careful to put it right back how it came off. Now this machine has never worked since i took possession of it so this tells me someone else at some point took the assembly off trying to work on it and here comes me later on and noted the screw holes of how it came off and put it right back where they had it which was the wrong position to begin with. Many hours of trying to figure this out why the basket wasnt lining up in the home position.
Many many thanks!!! Now the basket goes to its home and neutral position but is still off a little. i tried adjusting with screw on arm to try and bring it over to the center, but cant so its still off a little but im happy. Now just now in selecting free play button it popped a fuse. guess ill dive in to that next with the help of my new friends. :) And thanks for being patient with me guys..this stuff is way over my head. If you ever come to TEXAS look me up and ill buy the steaks.