464 tape deck grinding on rewind/ff

[Devlin]

I've just done some long-needed maintenance and replaced the tape belts on my 464, but now when the tape gets to the end when rewinding or fast-forwarding, the tape deck makes a horrid grinding sound.

In investigating, I found none of the gears' teeth are damaged, but more that it seems that the centre wheel which is held in place by the belt's tension seems to be jumping when under pressure?

Any clues as to what I've managed to do here, and how to fix it?

[Bryce]

The tape should automatically stop when it gets to the end. If it's not doing that, then the check-arm is not in it's proper place or you've jammed it somehow, maybe by tightening a screw too much or putting the screws back in the wrong places.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

The tape should automatically stop when it gets to the end. If it's not doing that, then the check-arm is not in it's proper place or you've jammed it somehow, maybe by tightening a screw too much or putting the screws back in the wrong places.

Bryce.

All the screws are in their right places and nothing feels jammed, but the check arm (the middle pulley? not the top one with the metal plate or the bottom one attached to the motor) seems able to freely move - It seems to grind the most when rewinding and sorta just squeaks a bunch when at the end of the tape?

How deep do I have to dismantle to examine the check arm properly?

[Bryce]

Sorry, I really should have used a picture and not just random words...

The white plastic lever circled in red is the auto-stop check arm. If you start the tape in normal play mode with no tape inserted, then gently press the lever towards the buttons, it should make the tape stop automatically. If this doesn't work, then something has been put back together wrong.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

with play pressed and the motor running, barely even touching that arm stops the tape immediately.

The part in the red box is the part that keeps slipping - and after a second inspection(to take the picture) i've found it happens only when **rewinding** a tape.

Were there any variants in the models of tape deck in the 464? mine is an early 464 and the only repair to the tape deck that's been done is replacing the pause button when it broke some years back, and re-soldering the various power/volume/LED cables when they decided to break.

[Bryce]

Have you added any new grease? Right below your red box is a screw holding a lever. Make sure you add new grease under this lever and also to any shafts you can access, and try not to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

I don't have any grease to do that, but the problem started after changing the belts and doing nothing else besides a quick cable repair on the power led and switch, so i'm not thinking that's necessary just yet. I want to solve this problem first, and then I can look into further maintenance (and have future knowledge to stop this issue if it manifests again)

[Bryce]

I don't have any grease to do that, but the problem started after changing the belts and doing nothing else besides a quick cable repair on the power led and switch, so i'm not thinking that's necessary just yet. I want to solve this problem first, and then I can look into further maintenance (and have future knowledge to stop this issue if it manifests again)

It's not further maintenance, it's a possible cause.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

In that case, what kind of grease should I purchase?

[Bryce]

In that case, what kind of grease should I purchase?

I use normal vaseline, works best and is easy and cheap to get.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

Probably have a jar of that kicking around, I'll do that and see if it helps. Any specific parts I should absolutely do, besides the small arm you mentioned?

[Bryce]

Probably have a jar of that kicking around, I'll do that and see if it helps. Any specific parts I should absolutely do, besides the small arm you mentioned?

On the shafts of the wheels and anywhere, where there's metal moving against metal. Also, there are some screws that shouldn't be tightened as much as possible because it would jam a moving part. In general, check that everything that should move, can move and can easily move. Sometimes it's a simple problem of some part not quite moving back to where it should or stopping short that will mess everything up. The "old grease" is always a good indicator of how far everything should move. If there's grease smeared up to a certain point, then that part should still be able to move that far.

Bryce.

[St-BeidE(DE/GB)]

Have you added any new grease? Right below your red box is a screw holding a lever. Make sure you add new grease under this lever and also to any shafts you can access, and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Bryce.

Is it a typo ?
and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.
I would recommend
and try NOT to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Greetings

[Devlin]

Have you added any new grease? Right below your red box is a screw holding a lever. Make sure you add new grease under this lever and also to any shafts you can access, and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Bryce.

Is it a typo ?
and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.
I would recommend
and try NOT to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Greetings

It is, and don't worry, I'm not completely inept, just mostly

[Bryce]

Have you added any new grease? Right below your red box is a screw holding a lever. Make sure you add new grease under this lever and also to any shafts you can access, and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Bryce.

Is it a typo ?
and try now to get any grease on the wheels or belts.
I would recommend
and try NOT to get any grease on the wheels or belts.

Greetings

Oops!

Bryce.

[Devlin]

Fresh grease applied to the places I could get it, placed the sacrificial Bette Midler cassette in to test(and to ensure if it breaks something it's not ruining one of my actual cpc games), and the slipping has stopped!

It seems to be behaving once again!

Cheers Bryce, you're an absolute living legend, and I really appreciate the advice you gave to me, and the community

[Bryce]

No problem, glad you got it sorted*. Just a case of something considered to be unrelated that was actually causing the problem. 

Bryce.

* Legal Notice - No Bette Midler melodies were harmed in any way during this repair.

[Devlin]

No problem, glad you got it sorted*. Just a case of something considered to be unrelated that was actually causing the problem. 

Bryce.

* Legal Notice - No Bette Midler melodies were harmed in any way during this repair.

* I wouldn't have minded either way 😈

[Devlin]

The grinding is back. Redoing the grease was a temporary solution, cause after a couple weeks or so it's right back to the way it was.

Should I be redoing the grease again? It seems like a temporary solution at this point, and I'm stuck wondering what's going on now.

[Bryce]

It may be that the old grease has turned sticky. Maybe you need to clean all the parts and then apply new grease.

Bryce.

[Devlin]

I've replaced all the grease, but in tinkering I think I might have cracked it.

From a friend who knows tape decks much better than I do:
On cheaper tape decks(I think the amstrad one, good as it is counts for this) and boom boxes with no stop-on-rewind mechanism, if the main tape belt is too tight, the belt can't slip like it's meant to and causes the idler gears to jump, skip teeth and make a horrid racket in the process.

So, with this in mind, I took my new belt out of the amstrad, and gave it a little stretching in one hand for about a minute or so and put it back in, and no more horrid grinding!