Help with Hitachi TRK-8080E

[BoomboxLover48]

Spend like 5 hours straight working on the TRK 8080. Not an easy box to work on.

I got another deck but the motor pulleys and tape heads looked messed up. So had to swap the motor and and tape heads.
Now it won't do the play function. Rew and FF works fine. I still cannot figure out how the take up axle gets engaged in play mode. The contact wheels are not engaging to the gears on the take up reel axle. The axle freely moves when you turn with your hand and that is it.

I am going nuts!!

I left it aside last night....before I go mad.

 

[Atomtan]

I feel your pain, you will probably see my threads where I have been working on one of these since last spring. I think it must easily have 60 hours into it so far (its not about the box itself as I know many see them as low end, I just want to beat it)....

Last week, I thought i had cracked the final issue. I took advice to clean and deoxit the record bar yet again, and it ran perfectly through 3 cassettes and I looked at it with great pride....fourth tape, the bad record bar symptoms returned again......I despaired, it returned to its shelf, but it will I am sure come back onto the bench again.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

I feel your pain, you will probably see my threads where I have been working on one of these since last spring. I think it must easily have 60 hours into it so far (its not about the box itself as I know many see them as low end, I just want to beat it)....

Last week, I thought i had cracked the final issue. I took advice to clean and deoxit the record bar yet again, and it ran perfectly through 3 cassettes and I looked at it with great pride....fourth tape, the bad record bar symptoms returned again......I despaired, it returned to its shelf, but it will I am sure come back onto the bench again.

HI, Atomtan, I had to give up working on it for a while. Today I spend another 5 hours to put it all back together and hook up. REW works perfect FF kind of okay, but no play function. I used an old tape and momentarily I could see the both channels are working fine but take up axle won't turn to pull the tape in forward motion.

Do you have a pic of the belt path on the deck? The play is not working at all.

Luckily after all the swapping of deck, tape heads, motor the radio is all working fine on both channels. Very strong and clear reception. Except for some scratches, a few small dings on the top Aluminum panel, the box is in great shape. Radio reception in stereo mode is very nice.

It was a real nightmare to take it all apart for the deck swap. Trust me this one comes next to Sanyo M9998 for difficulty in working on the box. Now I know all the connections by heart like that of Sanyo M9998.

~Royce

 

[Atomtan]

Royce, I have loads of pictures but not of the belts fitted. Looking at the pictures I do have (pre re-belting), the configuration shown in this thread (July 14) is correct. I found on mine, only the main belt had turned to goo and coated the brass motor wheel. It took hours to clean every spec of goo off. I purchased a kit for the 8080 here in the uk to replace all belts. I found the speed seemed wrong and swapped a couple of them for ones I had from an eBay mixed belt bag. I agree a previous post that the unit is very belt tension sensitive. It took three attempts and frustrating strip downs to get it to run right.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Royce, I have loads of pictures but not of the belts fitted. Looking at the pictures I do have (pre re-belting), the configuration shown in this thread (July 14) is correct. I found on mine, only the main belt had turned to goo and coated the brass motor wheel. It took hours to clean every spec of goo off. I purchased a kit for the 8080 here in the uk to replace all belts. I found the speed seemed wrong and swapped a couple of them for ones I had from an eBay mixed belt bag. I agree a previous post that the unit is very belt tension sensitive. It took three attempts and frustrating strip downs to get it to run right.

Hi Atoman, Thanks for your reply.

I also took so many pictures for future reference and help for the forum if someone has questions on wire connections and all.

I was playing with one old deck of the same to see how the take up axle works and was still unable to learn it. I thought I am good to work on decks because I've worked on so many decks including reel to reel and cassette decks. Now I know I am still on that learning curve. It makes me more humble!

If I am trying different belt tensions, which belt should I try with different tensions? Is it the one from the square belt from the flywheel axle to a white pulley? Thanks
~Royce

 

[Atomtan]

Royce

Yes the belt you mention is the one I had issues with. I find some new belts when you look carefully at their integrity is not great (they appear to run 'roughly') and are not what I would call true. I also have an 8200 which I have owned from new and that is very belt tension sensitive also (though is a hell of a lot easier to work on).

I'm not sure I can give any better advice on tension. I tend to overspend and buy a belt kit for any box I am working on, with the intention they should be a 'near as possible' to the correct running diameter and tension. With the 8200 the kit was perfect, with the 8080, when it messed around even with a new belt I laid out the one from the kit, and found ones from my random bag which by eye were close to the one from the kit. Esentially, trial and error.

On the 8200 I found also never really figured how the take up axle physically worked. The 8080 I got to run right, just have to decide how I can ever get the record bars to stay consistent for each channel.