Lookee what just arrived!

[Superduper]

So I'm building a big block chevy. It predates my 34 year marriage with my wife, so yeah, it's been with me a long time. So the short block is done, I just put the heads on and taking it step by step. I'm expecting a nice replacement chrome Moroso oil pan to arrive, and yesterday, my wife says "a big box came for you." I said, cool, finally!

Then when she brings it in, it looks a bit too "flat" to be an oil pan. I'm thinking, what gives, did they send me the wrong thing? When I opened it, surprise,surprise.... it's a dual cassette deck, all the way from OR!

Eric (Caution) purchased this from his local goodwill along with a bunch of other stereo stuff to part out and I inquired about it because it looked like it was complete and in too good shape to be parting out. I forget but I think I merely said something along the lines of "I like the dual deck pioneer." Never in my wildest dreams did I expect Eric to ship it to me. Anyhow, it's found a new home. The color is a bit different but the style is similar to my other Pioneer set. Thanks Eric!

 

[T-STER]

What a great gesture, and you are right that Pioneer looks way too nice to part out. Good to see brothers hooking each other up. well done dudes.

 

[Transistorized]

What a nice gesture for sure. They do look like they were meant to be next to each other for sure

How does it sound? Any repairs needed to get her up and running?

 

[Northerner]

Great gesture

 

[Radio raheem]

Nice one, yes everything should be free lol fark this money lark, great stuff

 

[MyOhMy]

Ah, a tale to warm the ol' cockles if ever there was one, and what a particularly nice deck to boot!

 

[neanderthal]

Pics of the big block Chevy?

 

[blu_fuz]

Screw the Pioneer, more BBC info.

 

[Hisrudeness]

It’s definitely worth saving these old tape decks rather than scrapping them. With this small cassette revival, unlike record turntables, no manufacturers are going to start to produce high end ones again.

 

[caution]

That looks so nice with your other Pioneers! With any luck it just needs new belts and some alignment/lube, and live on to play more tapes.

As for the rest of the decks....

 

[Fatdog]

I would love to see a picture of that Pioneer EQ all lit up like a Christmas tree. :superduper:

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Pics of the Pioneers stack and the Big Block Chevy please

 

[HvO1]

Really nice !

 

[Gnarlyman]

Nice Double deck, I have that same equalizer, love how the spectrum analyzer moves so smoothly! It works well with my Pioneer setup!

 

[HvO1]

Dear neighbours.....i have a new setup

 

[Superduper]

How does it sound? Any repairs needed to get her up and running?

It didn't work. Neither deck. Looking on eBay, its seems none of the Pioneer decks of this vintage offered are working either so apparently, the age of these decks have now all eclipsed their belts life expectancy. I did spend about 4-5 hours working on it and yep, the belts are all gone the way of the la brea tar pits. And if any of you ever worked on a "real" tape deck before, not a "boombox" tape deck, you know that it's a whole lot more involved. Anyhow, I got new belts in them except for the counter belts. The left deck works good now and sounds great. The right deck is doing the chipmunk and it's because the pinch roller is not contacting the needle, almost like it's in pause mode but it's not. So I've got to go back in and see what is up and why it's doing that. A bigger pinch roller probably will get it working again but of course that's not addressing whatever is the cause that is blocking the pinch roller from going all the way up. Anyhow, these are great decks and very well built. When it's all restored, it will be a lot of time expended but worth the effort and will be very satisfying. It's about 90% there. Just waiting for my back to get back to normal so I can work on stuff again. Tweaked it a couple weeks ago and I just can't do much right now.

Pics of the Pioneers stack and the Big Block Chevy please

Screw the Pioneer, more BBC info.

Pics of the big block Chevy?

Well, if you guys insist, but just a reminder, this is a BOOMBOX forum, not a car forum. I'm still working on it and taking my sweet time. Without a body to put it into, there simply is no rush. Anyone have a fun body for this motor to call home?











As for pictures of the stack and the set lit up like Christmas Tree......
Well, unfortunately, I've had guests visit me from California, in a row, and moved stuff around the house. The entire stack is disconnected to make room and I haven't had the time to set them back up yet. Also never took photos before. Maybe later when everything is all set back up, I can have everything powered up along with the newly restored Caution pioneer deck too.

 

[HvO1]

That is a nice piece of engine

 

[T-STER]

How does it sound? Any repairs needed to get her up and running?

It didn't work. Neither deck. Looking on eBay, its seems none of the Pioneer decks of this vintage offered are working either so apparently, the age of these decks have now all eclipsed their belts life expectancy. I did spend about 4-5 hours working on it and yep, the belts are all gone the way of the la brea tar pits. And if any of you ever worked on a "real" tape deck before, not a "boombox" tape deck, you know that it's a whole lot more involved. Anyhow, I got new belts in them except for the counter belts. The left deck works good now and sounds great. The right deck is doing the chipmunk and it's because the pinch roller is not contacting the needle, almost like it's in pause mode but it's not. So I've got to go back in and see what is up and why it's doing that. A bigger pinch roller probably will get it working again but of course that's not addressing whatever is the cause that is blocking the pinch roller from going all the way up. Anyhow, these are great decks and very well built. When it's all restored, it will be a lot of time expended but worth the effort and will be very satisfying. It's about 90% there. Just waiting for my back to get back to normal so I can work on stuff again. Tweaked it a couple weeks ago and I just can't do much right now.

Pics of the Pioneers stack and the Big Block Chevy please

Screw the Pioneer, more BBC info.

Pics of the big block Chevy?

Well, if you guys insist, but just a reminder, this is a BOOMBOX forum, not a car forum. I'm still working on it and taking my sweet time. Without a body to put it into, there simply is no rush. Anyone have a fun body for this motor to call home?

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As for pictures of the stack and the set lit up like Christmas Tree......
Well, unfortunately, I've had guests visit me from California, in a row, and moved stuff around the house. The entire stack is disconnected to make room and I haven't had the time to set them back up yet. Also never took photos before. Maybe later when everything is all set back up, I can have everything powered up along with the newly restored Caution pioneer deck too.

Speed Pro forged pistons to

 

[Superduper]

Just to finish up this thread, I just finished up a couple projects for another member and got back to this deck since it was 1/2 apart and taking up bench space. I want it done and outta the way!

Anyhow, so to recap, Caution sent this deck to me, generous gesture. He got it in unknown condition from Goodwill. I found that neither deck worked and so I went about cleaning and rebelting it. After the rebelt, the Left deck worked fine but the right deck worked chipmunk style. On further investigation, discovered that the pinch roller would not contact the capstan needle. Seeing it took me almost a whole day to redo the belts, I put it aside not wanting to look at it further.... until today.

Finally got to it and took the right deck apart. Discovered that a lever with a slot that fits over a solenoid pin was not installed properly. Instead of the pin nestled inside the slot like it should be, the lever was completely off and sitting on top of the pin. When the heads move up, the pinch roller action is blocked by the pin. The lever is installed with a screw which secures it and allows the lever to pivot. Some technician must've tried to fix this previously and screwed up. I say tech because when I took this apart, all the looms were neatly secured. Typically speaking, when DIYers do a deck with looms as complicated as this, they never get it back together correct. And as it is not possible for the lever to just pop off, even in rough handling (unless you bend and mangle it), it must've been mis-installed by someone. Furthermore, it's not something that you would need to touch to rebelt the deck (I didn't). I even had to dig up and refer to the SM (it's nice to have tens of thousands of manuals available just in case) to make sure that the lever was actually installed wrong since the presumption should be that something that wasn't touched should naturally be "properly" installed if unmolested. Anyhow, doesn't matter, it's DONE now and working nice. I didn't test record, I almost never do because I only have a handful of tapes and don't like to mess any of them up but even the music search works which seems to be one of those features that often fails and a mystery to fix. Also, I only tested this on the bench using a GE blockbuster as the amplifier/speaker.

So as I don't like threads hanging, just cinching this up, just like the deck itself. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. I probably have like 20 decks now and I don't even play cassettes! But I simply don't like anything going to waste and it was there, so naturally, I had to fix it, right?

Well, here it is in action: