My first jukebox

I bought a Rowe R-83 from my neighbor that seems to be in good working
order. This is the first jukebox I've owned and so I am a complete novice
as far as caring for it goes. Do any of you have any tips on the general
care and maintenance of this machine that I could benefit from. Also, I was
wondering if anybody knows if there is an owners manual available.

Thanks!

Jim

Congratulations on getting your first jukebox, Jim! A manual for it can
be obtained from Victory Glass in Waukee, Iowa. While these reprint
manuals are essential, I've found they often are missing helpful pages
from the original put out by the manufacturer in the year the model
(R-83) came out. I suppose to hold down the cost of re-printing,
perhaps they purposefully left out information dewemed to be
"non-essential". I'm sure some people would disagree, but my point is
you might want to call a local coin-op vendor who deals in AMI
jukeboxes, as he may have a few copies of the manual in his tech room,
as they needed the manual to help repair problems that would creep up
in the day-to-day operation of these.
I would either make sure your needle is new. Or better yet, get a new
one or two for a spare. You can keep it right inside the jukebox
cabinet, so it won't get misplaced in a drawer somewhere else in the
home.
Make sure your amplifier is okay electronics-wise, so that improper
voltages aren't "eating away" at it's useful life.
And most of all Jim: Play the Jukebox
Play the Jukebox
Play the Jukebox.
Some people think the more you baby it, the longer it will last. This
is not true with a jukebox. They were made to be played all day long.
In fact, not playing it causes problems to pop-up with lubrication,
electronics, and corrosion building up on contact points (where
applicable). So don't be afraid to enjoy the music you love to hear
play on it! Rob


wrote:
I bought a Rowe R-83 from my neighbor that seems to be in good working
order. This is the first jukebox I've owned and so I am a complete novice
as far as caring for it goes. Do any of you have any tips on the general
care and maintenance of this machine that I could benefit from. Also, I was
wondering if anybody knows if there is an owners manual available.

Thanks!

Jim

Along with what good points Rob already said .. All the jukeboxes i have
had all had dried up oil issues causing anywhere from major to minor
malfunction . A few drops of oil where it belongs should last years and
keep things going .

As for letting a juke set for long periods .. The biggest problem is
contact points tarnishing . The later year the machine the less of a
problem this is . It does not hurt the electronics to set idle

This is a Great machine if it is working properly. If it has the original
cartridge in it, the proper needle for it is a " Shure N44-C " which has a
light blue plastic grip on it. Other similar types of needles may fit but
perfromance may suffer. Tracking weight is 4 grams. The mechanism does
not require a lot of oil to keep it in good working condition. Remove
turntable by pulling straight up and out, look for wear marks on the
turntable shaft, put one drop of oil on each of these wear marks. Put one
drop of oil on the idler wheel shaft and bushing being careful not to
contaminate the rubber on the idler wheel. One drop of oil on the turntable
motor upper bronze bushing ( where the rotating shaft goes thru the top of
th emotor ) being careful not to get oil on th upper area of the shaft where
it contacts the rubber idler wheel. there should be a little oil tube on the
lower front of the motor, a couple of drops of oil here too. DO NOT use
engine oil to oil jukeboxes, use a light weight " machine oil " such as
sewing machine oil . Engine oil will dry out and make parts stick together
or become sluggish. Be very careful of the glass red switch under the tone
arm, these can easily break if touched but will last for decades if left
alone. Cleaning of the tone arm shaft and a drop or two of oil may be
helpful but if you are not familiar with removing the tone arm to do this it
might be best to leave it as is. Original spec for this machine calls for
lubrication only every 5 years. DO NOT put any oil or grease on any of the
moving parts of the gripper bow, that will eventually make it sluggish and
it may fail to trasnfer records properly.

If you get intermittent contact in the selector buttons, pushing them in
slowly may result in a double number such as pressing the 1 button may give
you 11 or 111 in the digital display. Easy way to self clean the switches
is ( with the machine turned off ) work each button in and out about 30
times each in rapid succession.

The R 82 and R 83 models were very popular when they were first introduced
by AMI. They were the first model in many years with no flat surface on
them for location patrons to set drinks on them which could sometimes be
spilt into the machine. They worked good, sounded great and looked good as
well. This was the last year for production of the model 1200 Mechanism as
used in models R 80 S thru R 83. This mechanism was a microprocessor
controlled version of the model 1100 mechanism which was introsuced in 1964.
I hope the one you have is in good working condition as it is a great
machine when it is working properly. I have one that I uncrated out of the
original crate when it was new and still get a lot of enjoyment out of it
after all these years.
wrote in message
ink.net...
I bought a Rowe R-83 from my neighbor that seems to be in good working
order. This is the first jukebox I've owned and so I am a complete novice
as far as caring for it goes. Do any of you have any tips on the general
care and maintenance of this machine that I could benefit from. Also, I
was wondering if anybody knows if there is an owners manual available.

Thanks!

Jim