Wurlitzer weird faults.

I have a stack of repairs piling up but I think I am on the top side of them. I have had a run of very odd faults which were the result of someone "having a go" at mending them at some point. The customer sometimes forgets to mention this until I find a red wire which goes where a blue wire should go etc. "Oh yeah my mate down the pub had a go at mending it.  He took a part away with him and was then abducted by aliens so we never got it back. Was it important?"
Star fault of the week was on a Wurlitzer Tarrock.

These machines are not hugely popular even though they have a mechanism almost identical to a Lyric, which is fine.  The reason for this is because many people feel a jukebox should look more like a fairground than your Granny's old blanket box.  But anyway.... 

The person who "had a go" at mending this was reputed to have many years experience with jukeboxes.  So you'd think that he would know what the Cancel button looks like.  What with it being a button you press, which cancels the record.  Almost like a BUTTON. So why he replaced the push button for cancelling the records with...a FUSE holder is anyone's guess.  Which is why the button was no longer a button but rather a short circuit through a fuse, which was WHY the record instantly rejected when you tried to play a record on the machine. Very creative.

 

Weird fault two was on a Rock-Ola 1455 which was "working fine" up until last week.  Which doesn't account for why the wiring was wrong.  Very odd.

 

Fault number three was less baffling but unusual.

This is a Wurlitzer One More Time but made for the USA market. The lady owner imported it to the UK and used a voltage adaptor she has used many times on her International travels for making cups of tea etc.  I was a bit baffled why the machine instantly blew fuses on the amp when it was switched on until I realised that instead of 110Volt coming out of this adaptor there was actually 170V and it had fried the transformer.  Not the owners fault.  More bad luck than anything.

 

And if I ever get a few days free I will eventually get round to the Rock-Ola 403 I just bought. Busy busy busy.

 

 

 

 

 

AMI J completed

I finished the AMI ages ago but I haven't updated the blog for some time.  Anyway, here it is. It looks good to me.

Wurlitzer Lyric E (1963)

I FINALLY got the chrome back for the Lyric. They do a great job but it is really inconvenient waiting 2 months for it.  How come when you see these "Restoration" programmes they get the chrome done in a week.
Anyway I have put it all back together and it looks great.  Now I just have to get it going.

Wurlitzer Carillon FINISHED!

The Carillon is finally finished. I think it came out very nice after all the work.

Wurlitzer Carillon

In the final stages now of finishing the Carillon. I have the amp and chrome so need to get it all assembled and going. The front looks good with the 'glass' I designed but there was a mechanical problem with the selector unit I hadn't seen before. Something must have jammed the solenoid disc which is turned by a toothed plastic wheel and it ripped the teeth off.  But I have repaired it so it should work fine.

Wurlitzer Carillon and AMI J

Work is progressing on the Carillon and AMI.  They are both big projects but I keep nibbling away at them between callout repairs and other faults on machines that come in for repairs. The cashbox side of the Carillion was a challenge. I couldn't get the coin reject lever off no matter how I tried. So eventually I cut the veneer with a hole in it to fit over the lever and then applied the veneer to the box with the lever still in place. Given that I used Evostick and it is a One Shot process, it certainly concentrates the mind for a few seconds!
Anyway it turned out nicely along with the front grill piece which I rebuilt with new slats across the front, veneered in the same wood as the sides.
So all I need now is the amp, so I can get the machine  up and running, and the front metal pieces so I can reassemble the front of the jukebox.

The AMI J is also coming along. I made a new wiring loom for the lighting circuit (AMI mains wiring is notorious for rotting) and put back as many parts as I can before the chrome comes back. I need to concentrate on the actual mechanism now before the chrome comes back.

 

Carillon and Ami J

The Carillon has now two sides with new wood veneer. The third side with the cashbox and reject button is slightly more tricky but it will look great when it is done.  A new front glass has been designed and is on order but can't be assembled until the chrome parts come back.

The Ami J chassis took a bit of head scratching trying to get a nice finish. No matter what I did it came out mottled, until I swapped paint brands and it came up with a brilliant high gloss finish.

Now I can put some of the wiring and metalwork back and make a bit of room.