problem with PLAY on CPC464

[orange]

i just started having this problem with PLAY on cassette recorder in cpc464. rewind and fasforward work fine, i replaced the main belt.
but when I start PLAY, the right little wheel turns only from time to time. and when it makes long pause, the tape gets mangled inside

how to solve it?

[Devilmarkus]

Make sure that the capstan is well pressed on the rubber wheel... It's responsible for the band transport.
Also make sure the rubber wheel is clean and not rounded...

[Bryce]

Clean the rubber wheels with very fine sandpaper, till the surface is matt again. This brings them back to life for another few thousand loads.

Bryce.

[orange]

ok, i opened it (yet again, d-oh).. and the rubber wheel has started to "disintegrate"; rubber on it has cracked on several places.
is there a way to fix that or replace it? where to look for replacement?

thanks.

[Bryce]

That part should be pretty much standard. Any old tape recorder should have a replacement for you. Have you any old audio equipment (Walkman etc) lying around? If not, I'm sure the next flea market has tonnes of them.

Bryce.

[orange]

oki, thanks. i did what you said (used pencil eraser as abrasive) and it helped somewhat. so i managed to load a game once.
will go look for that part.

[orange]

does someone have exact dimensions? I'm not sure whether to buy this one:
http://www.mgelectronic.rs/components/rola1716.jpg

or this one:
http://www.mgelectronic.rs/components/rola1704.jpg

(in milimeters)

[Devilmarkus]

does someone have exact dimensions? I'm not sure whether to buy this one:
http://www.mgelectronic.rs/components/rola1716.jpg

or this one:
http://www.mgelectronic.rs/components/rola1704.jpg

(in milimeters)

Forbidden

  You don't have permission to access /components/rola1716.jpg  on this server.


  Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at www.mgelectronic.rs Port 80

[Bryce]

Same here. But you can measure the approximate dimensions from the one you have, even when they are broken (dried out), the dimensions should be more or less correct. Besides, the mounts are spring-loaded, so the exact dimensions shouldn't be all that critical.

Bryce.

[orange]

its hard to measure it since its tiny   , i am attaching those two

it seems i'll have to disassemble the whole damn thing to take it out 

[Bryce]

Yup, they're not easy to replace.

Bryce

[orange]

thanks Bryce, that last statement was really... helpful..

well then I got the damn rubber wheel, it seems identical to the original. but how to dismantle that metal_plate_that_holds_heads in order to replace it?

interestingly 3 of those rubber wheels plus postage cost me more than whole cpc464.. doh!

[Bryce]

Ok, a little more helpful this time....

As far as I can remember, you have to fully remove the spring-loaded arm that the wheel is on, then push the metal axle out of the wheel, from the bottom side.

Bryce.

[orange]

yeah i just figured that out myself couple minutes ago and its done; its not so hard after all, 15min job.
thanks anyway.

another good thing is that these rollers are exact match and i got 2 spare ones

only thing left is that tape counter. its a very common problem, all tape recorders i bought on flea markets have broken 'reset' plug
but i guesss i can live with it... it might improve my math 'skill'

[Bryce]

What's broken? Does it still count, just not reset? Or does it do nothing?

Bryce.

[orange]

that black plastic plug that you push to reset the counter. its very similar on all them cassette recorders, but, alas, slightly different..
it ends up in two small plastic 'teeth', one of them pushes the mechanism to reset and the other 'stabilizes' the whole thing.
when the recorder gets thrown all over the place, one of the teeth breaks off. and its impossible to glue it back, because:
1) its bad type of plastic, no glue for it.
2)small surface.

there must be a way to replace the reset plug with some piece of wire or something..

[Bryce]

Hmm, that's unfortunate. I can only suggest modeling a completely new one out of a piece of plastic or epoxy.
Not easy.

Bryce.