Philips Vintage Record player AG9115

[Phantomrose1999]

Hi

Just got another market find for $20 and trying to bring it back to a fully operational state.

The Audio part works well, sound is rather good, for something from the last 50's or early 60's.

The main problem is the auto changer, which keep on cycling through

pickup tone arm,
Move to position to drop it
Drops it,
Then picks it up and takes it back to the rest position
Repeat all of the above

I had a very good look and cleaned and oiled everything, but still no luck. The moment the motor has power, it keeps oscillating like the above, UNTIL i press the stop button, then it will rest and stop and switch off.

However any attempt to use the START or manual level, which starts the motor will cause the above cycle to repeat.

The only observation i can make is on the platter, it appear that something is broken off from the bottom, perhaps some sort of cam

Appreciate if anyone has some knowledge of these older changers

PS: I tested the audio by removing the intermediate idler gear that is connected to the mechanism, so the motor just turns the platter.

See photos

['LIVEWIRE?']

Your 4th picture doesn't show a stacking spindle for records, nor an overarm, not that the fault would be caused by the lack of those items.

[Edward Huggins]

Without the tall cenre stacking spindle and the overarm, the unit can only work as descibed by the OP. This is because there is no record to drop - i.e. nothing to "sense". As it now is, is just best used as a single player.

[Audio1950]

Sorry Edward, but I disagree. Even without the spindle and the overarm, when the arm lands on the record, it shouldn't immediately lift again. The fault seems to be that when the cycle is complete, the centre boss of the turntable isn't knocking the actuating lever of the mechanism back to "neutral", so the cycle starts again. There can't be anything missing from the centre of the turntable, otherwise the cycle wouldn't start when the start button is pressed. I would suggest that the actuating lever, which pushes the cog (photo 3), towards the turntable centre, is gummed up, or sticking somewhere? Or it could be that the start button mechanism is sticking somewhere, causing the mechanism to be in permanent "cycle" position.

[Phantomrose1999]

Thanks Audio, I believe your explanation is the closest to what is happening. After the "cycle" of dropping the needle, it is not going back to neutral and the gears are still engaged with the platter, thus it keeps going on with the cycle. I cant quite figure out how it goes back to neutral

Does the platter cog need to disengage after the cycle ?

Can you see the photo of the platter, it looks like a cam or something is broken off, and this cam may be what pushes out one of the levers.

Its a beautiful unit and i would to have it fully working.

I do have the top stacker arm, but its not connected to anything. I dont have the center pin, happy to buy one if anybody has one.

[Phantomrose1999]

BTW - There is nothing gummed up, I have resored other vintage R2R units and I have cleaned this one with isopropol alcohol, then applied some WD40, and everything moves freely.

The following link shows it working without the top arm and witout the center pin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrrY7DvVCWQ

[Audio1950]

Now I'm confused! The link above takes us to what appears to be a completely different machine, which is working perfectly. Explanation please!

[Sideband]

It might be a different model but using the same record deck surely? The OP is merely showing the same type of record deck working as stated in a different model.

[Audio1950]

I take your point, but with great respect to the OP, what would be the point of showing a different deck that is working perfectly? Surely what we need is a video of the deck which was the subject of the post, showing it misbehaving?

[Phantomrose1999]

Hi All,
Did not mean to cause any confusion, but the YouTube link is an identical unit to the one i am trying to repair. Except mine seems to be branded Philips.

Please see the photos of my unit, which looks like the one in the YouTube clip.

I am hoping someone in this forum may have seen the platter of a similar player, to advise me if there is something broken off, like perhaps a cam on the bottom of the platter near the gear wheel. This is the only sign of something possibly wrong i can find.

[Edward Huggins]

Does it work OK when you operate it with the centre stacking spindle fitted?

[Phantomrose1999]

Edward, I dont have the center pin, I did think the problem may be caused by it not being present, but I have seen the YouTube video where it works without the pin. Also looking at the mechanism underneath, I dont think it will cause the problem.

I come back to a missing or broken cam from the main platter, that should park the lever that actuates the whole cycle. Hoping someone in this forum has a similiar one to have a look.

[julie_m]

I'm sure a Philips expert will correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the descent of the record down the spindle an important phase of the change cycle? There is a measuring finger at the back; which gets pushed hard by a 30cm. record, lightly tapped by a 25cm. record or missed altogether by a 17cm. record. Also, the overarm drops fully to the bottom once there are no more records to be played, indicating that the player should return the tonearm to the rest, disengage the idler and not try to play any more records. (This is how BSR changers work, although Philips were often ..... A bit different.)

[Phantomrose1999]

Dear Julie, the "measuring finger" at the right rear, decides where to drop the needle depending on the size of the record, quite rightly as you point out.

As you can see from the youtube video, the other persons unit, works well without the "overarm" record stabilizer. I have tried removing it, like the youtube video, but it does not help.

The problem I am having is the gear that connects to the platter is not disengaging, after dropping the needle. But if I press "Stop" it seems to stop the cycle.

[Audio1950]

Just a thought..... There surely can't be a cam missing from the turntable boss, because quite a few revolutions of the turntable occur during the automatic cycle, and if there was a cam there there originally, it would disengage the mechanism with the first revolution of the turntable. Take the turntable off, and watch to see what happens when you press the start button. If I'm right, something should push the small black cog towards the turntable centre, where it then engages with the larger cog, and sets the whole thing in motion. Something suggests that the black cog is not retracting at the end of the cycle, maybe something underneath the mechanism is sticking, bent, or missing altogether?

[Station X]

It's years since I played with an auto-changer and even then it would have been a BSR rather than a Philips.

When the player is started in auto mode, the gear train is engaged causing the tone arm to lift, move towards the centre of the record and drop close to the start of the first track. At this point the gear train is disengaged, although I can't for the life of me remember how.

The record plays moving the tone arm toward its centre. When the run out groove is encountered the sudden increase in inward movement operates the trip pawl which re-engages the gear train. The arm then lifts, moves outward, (next record is dropped) and arm moves to the start of the track at which point the gear train is once again disengaged.

In your case disengagement of the gear train at the start of the track is obviously not happening. You'll need to observe the mechanism in operation to discover why not.

[Phantomrose1999]

Thank you all for the feedback, we are on the right track, i need to understand how the cycle disengages, which from the comments, means the cog must be moved away from the platter grear.

Quite obviouly this is not happening, because once i press play, the grears stay enaged..(until i press stop)

I will have to watch closely at the next "play time" opportunity.

PS: i had thought the same, that if there was a cam missing on the platter, then there would be many revolutions of the platter before the cycle is finished, but the metal looks shinny like something has broken off... hence my suspicion.

[Station X]

It's coming back to me now. In the case of the BSR, parts of the large gear had no teeth, which meant that a small gear could only drive the large gear so far before it stopped with the small gear rotating in the toothless portion.

It then required an external force, for example from the trip pawl, to re-engage the gears.

Of course a Philips deck may not work like this.

[ms660]

I think this might be the turntable deck:

https://www.service-data.com/section.php/6002/1/ag1015

Lawrence.

[Phantomrose1999]

I do have the service manual for it, but must admit its beyond my ability to turn words into pictures and them into what is NOT happening with my unit.. lol

I just cannot see what pushes the black intermediate gear away from the platter..