Hey there, I've been repairing my amstrad today, fixed it's tape idler. Upon reassembly I'd noticed a piece that looked like a white disk with a small tube had come off and found out it was meant for holding the pause button down. Upon trying to put it in, it snapped, with the little plastic piece now stuck in there while the cap part of it is now detached. I was wondering if anyone knows how I could fix this to make the pause button operational and proper again. Including photos below of what I'm referring to received_475042710923613.png received_1585235351832058.png
bump
@dalekman9999 I haven't worked out a fix yet, but I'm with you on this quest. For me the white "top hat" piece keeps popping out. It's obviously worn down so won't clip in any more. The fact it's under spring tension makes this tricky to solve. I thought about adding a tiny drop of glue to the tip of the white piece so it stays put, but have been afraid to try this so far. The thing that complicates this is definitely the spring. It obviously needs to allow a certain amount of play in the cam part, otherwise I think a small screw would do the job.
Perhaps you could use use a very fine drill bit to extract the snapped off piece.
I've attached photos so you can see what it's meant to look like. It appears there's a sort of hook on the tip, which I'm guessing has worn down on mine.
I think if I fully understood how it's meant to work it'd be easier to fix it. I might have to dismantle another CPC to figure it out.
Quote from: dalekman9999 on 11:15, 23 February 22Hey there, I've been repairing my amstrad today, fixed it's tape idler. Upon reassembly I'd noticed a piece that looked like a white disk with a small tube had come off and found out it was meant for holding the pause button down. Upon trying to put it in, it snapped, with the little plastic piece now stuck in there while the cap part of it is now detached. I was wondering if anyone knows how I could fix this to make the pause button operational and proper again. Including photos below of what I'm referring to received_475042710923613.png received_1585235351832058.png
Hi,
I hope you can help me...I'm restoring one 464 and I missing plastic piece of pause mechanism of tape drive,spring and plastic pin.
I saw your post and photo, does anybody 3d printed that allready?
Can you send me scan (1:1) of plastic (both sides), that I can make stl file for printing?
Thanks!
@dalekman9999 An update:
In the end I simply heated up some thin wire and burned it through the remaining top hat part of the plastic retaining pin. I then bent a hook on the end. Pause now works and the pin is not coming out again in a hurry, though it would with mild effort. It's job is to resist the spring force, and it does that well.
Here is a photo of roughly what I did, although I had to crimp the hook bend tighter than in the photo. Obviously, once I got a good fit I didn't want to remove it again to take another picture. The spring pressure is needed to push down on the cam so it latches when the pause button is pressed.
IMG_20230114_022942.jpg
For anyone who doesn't have the top hat shaped part left, you could bend a T shape on the end of the wire so it retains the spring, or you could use a small washer or screw head to make the spring sit straighter. That's not essential though. To function it just needs that downward pressure on the cam.
Here it is latched and unlatched. It looks a bit wonky but I straightened it up easily enough. The main thing is it keeps spring pressure on:
Latched: IMG_20230114_030149.jpg
Unlatched: IMG_20230114_030152.jpg
I hope this helps someone one day who comes searching for a fix for this :)
p.s I forgot to add: In my opinion even a thin self-tapping screw would work, as long as it's inside the spring. The spring pressure on the cam is what matters.
Maybe a 3d printed part would work?
Could you do some measurements of the piece?
@SerErris OK, I've made a quick mspaint sketch of it.
cpc464 pause pin.png
These measurements are rough but should work. Mine is currently installed and I'm not removing again. If a bent piece of wire works I don't think the dimensions are too critical. Check that the section below the "top hat" will go inside the spring. I can't measure the spring now it's installed. You'll have to figure out the hook part by filing it down until it works I guess. Mine was broken. I hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. If you make something awesome please send me one ;)