Philips AG1014 Problems

[Old Sparky]

The AG1014 record deck in a 'Disc Jockey Auto' record player on which I'm working drops a record onto the turntable and then switches off instead of playing the disc.  If i place the pickup on the record manually, it then plays OK and, at the end of the record, the arm lifts and returns to it's rest.  If there is another disc on the auto spindle this drops, but once again the machine switches off.  I'm not as familiar with Philips Autochangers as with BSR & Garrard ones, but everything appears to be functional, though there obviously is a mechanical fault, which, although I have a service manual for the similar AG1003*, I can't figure out what it is.  Does anyone know?  A second point is that nowhere in the service manual does it stae what lubricants should be used, and which parts should be lubricated.  Can anyone shed any light on this subject, please?
* AFAIK the AG1003 (and 1013?) are 3-speed Autochangers, whereas the AG1014 (and 1004?) are(were) 4-speed decks, but they're otherwise identical so the service data for the 3-speed deck should be good for the 4-speed one.

[boater sam]

I would suggest, and this is only a guess, that the hight adjustment on the spindle is telling the changer that there is no record on the spindle. There must be a way for it to know that there is another record to be played before it drops the last disc.

[Old Sparky]

After further checks, and cleaning/regreasing various parts, the changer will now play all the records in a stack except the last (top) one, at which point the record drops onto the turntable, then the changer switches off.  The last record can then be played manually, and, at the end of this, the PU arm will lift, return to it's rest, and switch off the mechanism, so it seems there's an issue with the autochange spindle, as you say.  Whether the fact that there is no circlip holding the turntable on is relevant to the above I know not.  I shall have to try and find one!

[boater sam]

I don't know how this deck works but the old BSR ones had a lever that was under the overarm vertical shaft that tripped the mechanism to off when there was no record on the spindle and the pickup arm went into the centre at the end of playing the last record.
Could be that the overarm is bent? or that there needs to be adjustment under the arm shaft?

[Refugee]

There must be something under the deck that senses the height of the over arm spindle that either needs to be adjusted or cleaned if there is a blob of grease on the bottom end of it.

[Old Sparky]

Further checks today revealed that the deck will now play all records in a stack(well up to 5 anyway!) automatically, but continuously repeats the last disc unless the reject & stop buttons are pressed. There is a diagram in the manual showing how the (removable) autochange spindle should locate, and it seeems to be correctly located. The overarm is straight, and moves freely, but, obviously something isn't working correctly. THese Philips Decks are different to Garrard & BSR ones in detail, and I'm not familiar with them so am not sure what the cause of the problem is!

[Old Sparky]

At last I have the AG 1014 working as it should (fingers crossed it stays that way!. The problems with the autochanger not always cycling properly, including sometimes dropping two records at once or switching off after dropping the last one were, in part at least, as far as I can tell, due to sluggish working of the autochanger spindle, which has improved after applying a few drops of WD40 to it, although, IMHO, it still seems stiff - i.e. to remove records the record keeper part has to be pulled back with one hand whilst lifting the discs off with the other. I'm not familiar with these Philips decks, but that doesn't seem right to me, but (a) I'm more used to BSR & Garrard 'changers with their freely moving 'record keepers', and (b) this deck is over 50 years old. Perhaps regular use will 'free up' the operation.

[Old Sparky]

Following on from the above I've discovered that the easiest way to remove records from the AG1014 is to pull out the autochanger spindle, then simply lift off the discs. I'm not sure if that's how Philips advised, but it works! Removing records by pulling them up over the record keeper as is the case with BSR & Garrard decks is a difficult two-handed job, and I can see adisc being scratched by the 'magidisc' size selector lever whilst so doing. I have had more problems with this autochanger and the record player in which it's fitted than with any BSR or Garrard deck on which I've ever worked!