Plays Slow When Cold - Seeburg & Bodine Motors - Ron Rich - Jukebox-list

2 Sep 2025


      I was going through my files and found the following post from Ron on 
Jukebox-List many years ago - and I figured it was time to post it again 
for the younguns...
----------------------original posting----------------------
From: Ron Rich ronnnrich@yahoo.com To: jukebox-list@lists.netlojix.com
Subject: [Jukebox-list] Slow when cold Bodine motors
The story from my good, but not too long memory goes like this--
Sometime in the mid 1960's Seeburg began getting complaints about the 
mech not wanting to play at 45rpm when cold. At first (I understand), 
they "ignored" the situation. At some point, it became apparent that 
this was beginning to affect sales. They then came out with an 
"un-official fix"--which was an electrical addition plus the suggestion 
that the motor be removed, cleaned and re-oiled with "Seeburg oil". The 
electrical portion was "un-official" as they knew it would not be able 
to be UL approved. (It was similar to Wes' earlier suggestion).
As more and more complaints came in, they decided sometime around 1966, 
to do a "study of the problem". They requested that their distribs. send 
in any motor that was having problems. They also requested a few sample 
Bodine motors from older models--all the way back to the model B. They 
further "borrowed" a few mechs from distribs that were having this problem.
Short ending--It was found that ALL Bodine motors, including early ones 
ran slower when "ice cold", this is not noticeable in the 45rpm units, 
as the slow-down is less then one rpm@ 45rpm, however in the units 
geared at 33, the torque produced by the motor, when "auto-speeded" to 
45rpm is much less. Bodine, which had assured Seeburg that the motors 
would be OK if geared and autospeeded to 45, supposedly also did a 
"study". Their answer was a redesign of the motor, which was then marked 
with a stamp "Al" after the KCI 42 model number ( I was told, once 
again, "un-officially", that Bodine admitted that about one percent of 
their motors had a "production defect").
Seeburg then re-suggested that on any mech having this problem, ALL 
grease, especially "Lubriplate" and oil be removed. All "thrust bearing" 
adjustments were to be checked, and re adjusted to specs, if needed. A 
light coat of graphite grease (NOT "Lubriplate") was to be applied to 
the gears, and a re-oiling with only "Seeburg Oil". Plus, the motor was 
to be dis-assembled, cleaned and re-oiled with Seeburg Oil.
They also added a 5k10w ww resistor to the circuit, when in the "play" 
mode ( I think this is shown on the LS-1 schematic on up--I know it's 
shown on the LS-3 schematic-up).
The above, although I do live in "Kahl-lee-forn-nee-ya", ain't no "torro 
feces"--just how I remember it--Ron Rich
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