Today was SMC1 day. I propped the upper lid up with a pipe and replaced the gas springs made by Suspa. Incredibly Suspa is still in business and replacement springs can be ordered directly from Suspa. Seeburg used 120 pound springs. I use 90 pound. These hold the lid up with no problem and more importantly allow the lid to gently close. The original 120 pounders can take quite a tug downward to get closed. I broke the back out of an SMC3 that had just been finished closing the lid for the first time after installing new 120 pounders. Made me sick. These cabinets are made of cheap particle board with practically no support. Just to finish the story I did get the SMC3 repaired using a very innovative fix with a lot of metal bolted in for side-to-back support. The part number for the 90 pound springs is C16-24190. These are direct bolt-in.

With the mechanism serviced and the amplifier making noise it is time to see what I have. The PCC had been tested in the prior SMC and works. I removed the CPA unit. Or, Collection/Play/Audit Microcomputer Memory Bank. Quite a mouthful for the piece with all the service switches. It also has a small automatic reject board that gets inspection and a cap replaced. I’m not sure why but I’ve never seen one of these CPA’s that has a clean top and this one was no exception. I pushed the top connector through, taped off the hole from underneath, sanded the top down and sprayed with silver metallic hammer tone spray paint and remounted everything.

The MCU from this juke works. I had to replace one of the voltage regulators in the MCU case and the battery holder which is usually corroded from the batteries being left in them for umpteen years. These will operate without batteries which are used to keep coin audit and pop meter data in memory for the operator to use. I am fortunate there was no battery corrosion on the boards. Just some on the metal case which got cleaned off and repainted.I also use a smaller AA battery holder setup rather than three larger, heavier C batteries.

I installed the MCU held my breath and turned it on. The mech scanned and the MCU inititated. I made several selections and shut it off. Today was just to get to this point. I have a working jukebox. I’ll fine tune it and finish the cosmetics as I can or when I find a chunk of time.

Since I got the Victory Glass order with the new motor couplers today is a good time to install one in place of the rather stiff one on the SMC1. I had been hearing vibration harmonics while playing a record in the start up and tail off grooves and could feel a littl vibration on the motor. I knew the coupler was stiff but it was all I had. It took about a half hour to install the new coupler and it definitely made a difference. There is a proper way to install these. Push the motor couple up all the way up on the turntable shaft. But before doing so note there is a cut out on that shaft. This where the upper set screws go. Install the motor. Move the coupler down eyeballing where that cut out is in relation to the set screws. When in place tighten the set screws. The motor shaft has two flat sides and this is where the lower set screws will go. I use a small flat tip screwdriver and fiddle the coupler around to get the set screws lined up with the flats. When installed this way the turntable shaft is not being forced upwards and proper clearance on the upper turntable shaft bearing is maintained.

While on the subject of vibration a very important but overlooked piece is the motor support plug. If the motor is hanging in its mounts this pulls on the motor shaft and can transmit vibration. The support plug is rubber and about 3/16 of an inch thick. It can be made out of almost any piece of fairly firm rubber that supports the motor without allowing it to sink in. The rubber bumpers on each end of a Seeburg mechanism rack are excellent examples of what to use and I have used them cut down to proper thickness. Motor mounts take up the torsional movement when the mechanism switches direction as do the turntable bushings. As long as the rubber is flexible and not oil soaked they’ll work.

I did one of my favorite upgrades to the early 50’s 100 Select machines. I took the mono tonearm off and installed the later redhead stereo T needle tonearm and needles in its place. Better needles and lighter tracking. Tie both outputs together and both grounds for a mono output to the amp. I am fortunate in that I have a ton of original Pickering T needles sourced from an old operator as well as a large supply of these cartridges and tonearms assemblies. These needles used, put out better sound than the new $125 a pair needles available today. This is a fairly straightforward swap. When I get the mech mounted in the juke I’ll sort out the tonearm adjustments. With this bounty of new parts from Victory I replaced the mech cover insert as well. I did it the way I’ve always done them. Set the cover upsdide down on a thick folded over towel, cleaned the old insert out of the cover and scraped off the old dried brown glue then I ran a fine bead of silicone sealant as a glue, wrapped a mech motor in a clean rag and set it inside the cover on top of the insert to gold in palce while the silicone drys. The next morning I’ll remove the motor and any silicone that might have squeezed out into view.