audio-talk

If it’s an easy fix and otherwise good, I’d fix it. They’re all 40 to 50 years old now, so the chance of getting one 100% perfect is pretty remote.

Well now abit of violence on the speed selector switch has made it work, ill keep it and give it a strip and clean and relube at some point.
Ive just had the back off to check the motor run cap and it appears that its been changed at some point, there is a pair of caps marked west germany in place of the original. Everything else i can see looks ship shape. The front has to come off to get at the belts and idlers, so i cant see them.

Maybe i will get a decent intro to r2r out of it after all

I hope so. Good luck Ant!

Ant wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:45 am
What came out of it was not mantovani, andy williams, pat boone, or even kajagoogoo!

It is some sort of orchestral piece, but it also has moogs or something similar on it some sort of rather interesting classical fusion..... if thats a thing.

Switched on Bach ? I've got it on vinyl somewhere.

Excellent! The 'clunk' might have been a solenoid?

My Akai has all plug-in boards, which was probably a 'thing' back then, and they plug into 0.2 inch pitch double-sided edge connectors, which I don't think you can get anymore. The biggest is for the motor control board and there was sometimes the odd glitch, where something stops working. On stripping it down, it appears someone has been spraying possibly motor oil on the board, by way of a 'fix' - I opted for switch cleaner, which would work, until the next time it happened.

Eventually it transpired that the edge connector had split all along the back, so it bowed out both sides and the contacts in the middle were hardly touching. This was completely invisible whenever the board was removed, because it returned to its normal shape. I can't remember how I discovered it in the end, probably by noticing the connector bowing out when the board was inserted. As luck would have it, I had a couple of 0.2 inch edge connectors (Vero, no less) in the toolbox that bought some time back from Maplin, and one was exactly the right size. Jammy or what? I carefully swapped all the wires over one by one, screwed in the new connector and job's a goodun.

That fault had previous owner(s) going around in circles for some time - as evidenced by it being sprayed with various substances at intervals - including me!

pre65 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:27 am Switched on Bach ? I've got it on vinyl somewhere.

A very good choice for improving your audio play-bach

Not sure about a solenoid mike, i couldnt see one when i had a look in it. But i didnt pull anything big out so there could be one hiding somewhere.

Ordered the belts, isopropyl, 500 big cotton buds, and some rubber renue for it today

Ive never used rubber renue for idlers, or any other rubber bits before, wonder if itll do any good.

As for the motor, theres an oil hole on it, any suggestions on what to use? Sewing machine oil is the first thought, but im sure someone has a suggestion for proper stuff for it.

Ill print off the service manual i found for it, there might be a particular type suggested in it, but im sure theres a modern alternative

It’s worth buying a demagnetiser Ant, just keep your tapes well away from it. Best to demag in another room.

This is my 'go to' for RtR advice

http://www.tapeheads.net

Crikey Ali, what kind of demagnetiser do you use? Hadron Collider?

If you want to get an idea of the 'field' of a demagger turn your record player on and bring the demagdevice closer and closer to the cartridge.

Don't get me wrong but in another room is a tad too cautious!

Just following advice from the Tapeheads forum Mr I.

Well ive spent a rather pleasurable and productive afternoon fixing the r2r.
I found out what the initial problem was, and what the big 'clonk' was.
The mech is quite clever in how one motor spinning at a single speed performs all the functions.

At the top of the machine between the 2 reel tables there are a pair of idlers. The right hand reel table is driven anticlockwise by a belt from the flywheel whose bearing shaft doubles as the capstan. The pinch roller comes forward and up to rest on this shaft with the tape inbetween.

The flywheel has 2 drive surfaces, which are driven by an idler which moves forward and backward, to 3 fixed positions. These positions correspond with 3 steps on the motor pulley.

The 2 idlers at the top, are the rewind mech, they move together to reverse the motion, driving the left hand reel table clockwise.

So ive stripped it and rebuilt all 3 idlers and used lithium grease for the shafts, and fitted a complet set of belts.

The problem it had was with the speed change control.

It has a rotating plastic ramp that pushes the idler wheel forward, (towards the front face of the machine) or allows it to go backwards (towards the back of the machine) under spring pressure if its rotated the other way. The idler arm itsself slides on a pair of rods. The arm was stuck on one of the rods so it was not able to move backwards under spring pressure when the cam surface was turned.
The clonk was it momentarily freeing up and dropping back under the spring pressure. Because it was stuck, and the articulated part of the linkage which allows it to move left and right into the correct position the engage the flywheel and motor pulley was also stuck, the rest of the mech moved and trapped it in place where it wasnt touching any drive surface at all.

So it now goes at 3 speeds.

There was huge slack in all the belts apart from the tape counter belt which was in bits in the bottom so all have been replaced, all the drive surfaces have been cleaned with ipa, the heads and tape path have been cleaned with ipa, and all the idlers and pinch roller have been cleaned with ipa then treated with rubber renue. Which stinks.

Hopefully, it plays, the transport functions correctly, but i havent hooked it up yet. I hope ive not disturbed any of the head wiring by doing any of this and broken something.

It was actually a nice job to do and to figure out how it works.

Crossed fingers

Oooooh,
This thing sounds nice.
The tape is a mix of stuff, just played an acoustic version of its too late baby by carly simon, followed by a classical waltz of some description.
Christ knows what its playing now...


Im not getting the hiss which i was expecting, i havent degaussed the heads, just cleaned them with ipa.

Its now playing a wierd instrumental easy listening version of pretty things by david bowie

Someone had odd musical taste. Is it one of phils tapes?

Even given the strangeness, it sounds lovely.

Its worse than the jbe dd for not being able to stop watching it...

Chuffed with that

Ant wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:47 pm Oooooh, ....
Someone had odd musical taste. Is it one of Phil tapes?

Proper lol'd at that Ant

Dave the bass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 10:10 pm

Ant wrote: ↑Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:47 pm Oooooh, ....
Someone had odd musical taste. Is it one of Phil tapes?

Proper lol'd at that Ant

Made me chuckle as well.