Rock ola 473

Somebody has broken in to the cash box, from the inside of the jukebox. The cash box housing is broken and it’s not easy to find a replacement so I have to leave it as it is. The cause for the crime is probably that the key for the coin door was missing. The easiest way in would have been to remove the nut at the inside of the lock through the coin entry hole at the top of the cash box housing. This is what I did when replacing the lock. One odd thing though is that the lower coin chute is missing, this is the part that directs the coins coming from the coin rejector in to the cash box. I made a simple slide of aluminum as replacement, not too beautiful but it does it´s job.

One sad thing is that the plastic that should be behind the lower glass is missing. I’ve been told that it was cracked and a previous owner took it out and throw it away. I have tried to find a replacement but had no success, so for now I have to leave the glass as it is. On the other hand, it’s nice to see the mechanism working inside the juke box.

One problem with this is that there is a florescent tube just inside the glass and it has to be shielded a bit. I strolled round in the hardware store looking for something I could use and found a black plastic strip that should fit perfect. Next problem was how to attach the strip to the tube and I found something that looked to be possible to use. It was black plastic self-adhesive cable ties that after some modification became clips for attaching the plastic strip to the tube.

 

The credit accumulator in this machine is controlled by a microprocessor and does not support free play. Instead I added a micro switch to the coin reject arm and credits are added each time the reject button is pressed. In this way it is possible to get credits either by inserting a coin or by pressing reject. The micro switch can easily be taken out if the juke box should be coin operated only.

The lower glass rattled quite badly when playing a record, which is due to the missing plastic. The channel that holds the glass is wide enough to also house the plastic. I took the frame apart and added a rubber strip in the channel to lock the glass in place.

I made new title strips and repaired the strip holder. It was cracked in the top left corner. unfortunately som pieces was missing but I glued together what was still there.

The last thing was to adjust the landing position of the pick-up, it did miss the lead in at some records. After some minor cosmetic fixes and cleaning of the inside and outside it is now finally ready.