Fixing a "setback" by adjusting Setback.

Yesterday (Saturday) I was determined to find, and fix, the Gripper Arm-to-Record interference issue, and since I thought the issue lay somewhere in my rebuilt Magazine Assembly, I figured the simplest way to check this would be to swap them around.

 First, I pulled the Magazine out of the parts unit:

But in order to that, I had to remove the back of the unit, which meant I had to remove the top, which meant I had to remove the glass (you get the idea). Needless to say, it wasn't as simple as just yanking it out.

Then I had to pull-out the Magazine from the "good" unit:

And safely set it aside.

I then installed the "parts" Magazine into the "good" mechanism, with this result:

Yup! I still had the interference, even with a Magazine that hadn't been messed-with.

(Much grumbling ensued....)

Curious, I installed the "good" Magazine in the "parts" unit, and everything lined-up perfectly!

(More grumbling ensued....)

Then I happened to notice that I had a Reference Point I could use, something that I hadn't seen previously: There is a mounting boss, or ear, on the back of the Gripper Housing that lines-up almost perfectly with the end tab on the Reversing Levers on a "good" assembly (circled in yellow):

On the "bad" assembly they don't line-up:

Since I had this issue with both/either Record Magazines, it became obvious that the issue lay with the "setback", or "tilt", of the Gripper Housing. But since there were no shims or spacers shown in any of the pictures I took upon disassembly, I was skeptical that the factory had done this originally. Plus, I didn't see any marks (notes) near the mounting holes on the baseplate.

What I found, and what I think the factory did, was this: I have three Gripper Housings here, and all of them look the same on the bottom. However, the hole for the Outer Shaft is located in a slightly different position on each one, and what I think the factory did was they riveted the "Hole Block" (my term, picture below) to the Gripper Housing on a jig of some sort once they had all of the parts loosely assembled in the factory. I think this discrepancy between the different assemblies may have something to do with the interference issue I was experiencing, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Knowing I had to tilt the Housing back "just a smidge", as a test I grabbed two lock washers (from the mounting bolts of the spare unit) and used them as a shim between the Mounting Plate and Housing, on the two front bolts of the Housing.

Yesterday must have been my lucky day, as the results of this were absolutely perfect! Here's a couple shots showing the Gripper Arm-to-Record gaps after I had reinstalled the rebuilt Magazine:

 You can't argue with results like this!