Speaking of Grippers.....

One of the smartest things I've done for this jukebox is to buy as many used and NOS pieces and parts as I've been able to lay my hands on. One of the most "interesting" (and educational) of these purchases has been a used and complete Gripper Unit Assembly (P/N 18813-A) from what I believe was a 1448 that I found on eBay in 2011 which also came with the Micro Switches, the reversing lever switch/rod mechanism, and all associated wiring. The seller claimed the unit wasn't locked-up, which turned out to be untrue, but fortunately I was able to free it up with some 3M Penetrating Lubricant.

I remember as a kid how the gripper arm moved, and I can't describe how happy I was to simulate this once I had freed-up the "spare" gripper assembly! So happy, in fact, that I grabbed my wife and said, "Look at this!" She said it was "Nice...." (you married guys know what I'm talking about).

Anyway, since the gripper mechanism in the actual jukebox was locked-up, my advice to anyone who cares: BUY SPARE PARTS! It's always easier to learn on them than on "the real thing"!

Regardless, even though I forgot to take initial pictures showing wiring and what-not, here are some pictures of the disassembly:

Locked-up tight and very dirty:

Attempting to remove the two shafts at the same time (bad idea!):

Reverse side:

Ok, here I must have had it freed-up enough that I was able to rotate the gripper arm 90 degrees, but the gripper gears are still installed/attached:

Making progress:

Here I found I had to remove the Gripper Arm Reversing Cam to go any further, and in order to do that, I had to remove the reversing rod linkage. Close-up of that assembly:

After removing the Gripper Drive Shaft assembly I was able to lay the unit on it's side and see how the Reversing Bracket Assembly works:

I will admit that it took me a while to figure out how to disassemble the Gripper Arm Reversing Cam from the arm itself, and at first I thought all I had to do was loosen this set screw:

WRONG! Disassembly requires depressing the Inner Gripper Casting, and removing this roll pin:

Which will give you this:

And leave you with this:

A little more 3M "LuberSchlieder" and I was down to this:

I guess my point here is, I could have removed the mechanism from the actual jukebox, but I guess I'd rather learn (and make mistakes) on a "spare" piece so that I don't mess-up the "real" part.

Another added benefit is that I was able to send this gripper arm out for chroming while leaving the original arm still installed!