Rock-Ola 454 won't switch records when done playing

Hi,

I'm new to these forums and would appreciate any help that can be given. My jukebox will play a record in it's entirety but when the record ends and the tone arm moves in towards the center of the record it no longer picks the record up to put it back and take the next selection. I'm far from an electrician but I've tried my best to diagnose the problem with the service manual I have for the 454. I've traced the steps in the service manual to where my jukebox stops responding and this is what I find. I will use the language in the service manual verbatim in order to help in conveying what is not working.

Page numbers 56 and 57 in the service manual shows pictures of the tone arm switch, micro switches, and the gripper motor along with the control box where the reverse relay and resistor are located. Per the manual sequence #20 (music cycle ends) is where my jukebox seems to fault. The manual says "as record play is ended, the tone arm moves into the record cut-off groove, closing tone arm switch...." (NOTE: my jukebox does this. I've even taken the back plate off and watched as the arm moves and can actually see the spark created when the tone arm switch is activated) "...reverse relay energizes and held thru it's own contact. This causes the gripper motor to operate in reverse and proceeds to return the record to the magazine." It goes on to describe what the micro switches do but my jukebox never gets that far. I've checked all the fuses and replaced a blown one to no avail. I've also completely removed the control box that contains the gripper reverse relay, 15 ohm resistor, and the trip and release coils to see if there were anything noticeably wrong with them as that to me seems where the trouble is. The tone arm switch seems to be activating but the relay coil is not energized to reverse the direction of the gripper motor to return the record to the magazine as described on page 13. If you think there is something I missed, something I can do, or a place I can get parts please let me know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

In these sorts of cases the first place to look is at the power supply
fuses. Then the first set of contacts in a sequence. Here, that is the
trip switch at the end of a record. You se that you've seen a spark
but that does not mean that there is adequate continuity. Try actually
shorting the contacts together by -carefully- placing a pair of clip
leads or even a screwdriver blade across the terminals where the wires
connect to that switch. Do this once a record is playing.

If the motor takes off -you have pitted contacts that need to be
cleaned have the pitted area filed -again carefully.

If that test fails to reveal a problem, then test the actual voltage
across the relay's coil at the point where it should be working.
Also, try manually pushing down on the frame the holds the contacts on
that relay so as to simulate the relay action. If the mech is in play,
the relay should stay down on it's own and gripper motor should run.

Lastly, the gripper motors on all Rock-Olas are notorious for failing
due to shorted turns in the armature, but unless that has caused the
low-dc fuse to blow, I doubt that is the problem here.

I've had only limited experience in R-O's so others may have
additional info for you.

Rob/NYC

Thanks Rob for taking the time to try and help. I will be trying this and let you know what I find out!