My #1 is sick :( (TRC-931)

[Alf]

I'm all worked up over here guys... I took my favorite box apart last night to try and diagnose a strange problem I have been experiencing.

Most people complain that their boxes don't play tapes... Well, mine must be so proud that it plays so well that it refuses to stop playing. Here's the deal; The tape assembly is "stuck" up in the play position. In other words it is always engaged regardless of weather I push stop, ff or rew. This results in tapes getting stuck in there as the pinch roller has a grip on the damn thing ALL THE TIME. The door will not open and ff and rew the tape results in "chipmunk" music as the tape is always playing while it's advancing or rewinding. I can't even use the box with my ipod because the tape motor is awlays running if thebox is powered on. See the video below:
(NOTE: I used a cappy point and shoot camera instead of my video camera so quality sucks. I will re-shoot tonight)
[youtube]PjY82L_QpL4[/youtube]

What could be causing this to happen? I can even manually move the head assembly down and it just pops back up. I baby my boxes so I just can't seem to wrap my head around how this could simply happen out of the blue.

What do you guys think?

Thanks

Alf

 

[monchito]

it looks like the stop mechanisim is not activating stop there might be a spring or a pin even a slipping belt and it might be something else

 

[blah blah]

Must be something just barley out of line, the small wire that pushes the eject up when you hit stop.

you said in the vid that you had it open and something was a bit stuck and you got it loose and it worked again.

maybe something needs a bit of lube??

 

[Alf]

OK, sorry to bring this up again but its happening again...

I was happy as can be last night jamming some tunes and... Once again the heads get stuck up. Once I pryed the tape out I manually pushed the heads back down and they pop up... How can something like this happen on it's own? Do you guys think I will have to tear down the entire tape assembly piece by piece?

 

[Superduper]

On most soft touch cassette mechanisms, the heads actuate to the ready position via the rotational action of the capstan flywheel. When stop is pressed, the heads retract back to the standby position (down) and deck turns off.

I've never owned a Lasonic (yet) but on yours, it looks like the deck is always getting an ON signal. I would probably want to check to make sure, that if there is an electrical microswitch that turns on the deck, that it is not shorted thereby telling the deck to play. The default position is definitely heads down/capstan motor off. That means that something is definitely telling the deck to turn on. Given my limited experience and knowledge of the Lasonic decks, this would be my guess.

 

[MONOLITHIC]

Wish I had an answer to your problem...

All I wanted to say is - BEAUTIFUL BOX!!!

Hope you get her back to where she belongs.

 

[monchito]

well i have one but have not looked at it yet but the real way was to open it and look at it when in play if you can get it to stop then watch to see what moves and see if it returns once you press stop

 

[Alf]

NORM!! YOU'RE A GENIUS!

I'm going to pursue that right now!!!

And THANK YOU James!

 

[stynger007]

Bet ya the belt(s) are loose.. 9 times out of 10 even though the belt seems tight enough, it`s not.. this can cause the heads to not return to the stop position . If you open the box up after pressing stop, rotate the capstan pulley by hand in the right direction..if it makes a sound when you are turning it like gears grinding, that`s the wrong way. If in the event you spin it and the heads return to resting position or "stop" , it is the belt. :sin:

Post back so we can see how you did!

 

[Alf]

Well I disassembled the entire tape assembly and noticed that the tension on some key screws were way off (like falling off) I reassembled it all and violla! Like new... Well almost... I must have missed something because now the right reel doesn't spin and it eats tapes. DOH!!! Time to re-re-assemble. Hahaha!

 

[eldorado]

Well I disassembled the entire tape assembly and noticed that the tension on some key screws were way off (like falling off) I reassembled it all and violla! Like new... Well almost... I must have missed something because now the right reel doesn't spin and it eats tapes. DOH!!! Time to re-re-assemble. Hahaha!

maybe you tightned those screws too much?



hope you ge it goin

 

[TRC-911]

I have a complete set of the 931 upper and lower tape decks