Sharp VZ2000 advice needed

magnetron

New Member
May 2, 2020
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Recently i came across a VZ2000 locally and having bought one brand new in 1983 sentiment took over to get another.

The owner said that after one chanel had failed they had boxed it up way back in the late 1980’s and there it had sat over the years more or less forgotten about in a storeroom at the back of their garage. Apart from a haze of dirt covering the top it was still in remarkably good condition and even the trim hadn’t suffered the usual pitting . They had never used the cassette part and this proved to work as good as ever. Even the belts worked well enough to play a tape through.

The record player part was another story. Not only were all the belts completely jellified, but the pick up arm motor failed to operate even when a new belt was fitted.

In order to investigate this and give it a really good overall the deck needs to come out on the bench entirely to remove the gunk from the motors etc, BUT there seems to be no way the connector will release from the circuit board. I’ve been so careful not to stretch the cables but this simply will not release using gentle persuasion.

Is it really the case i *have* to separate the front and rear casing and let the deck control PCB drop down as in the tear down instructions before i can remove the unit entirely?

Naturally i wish to avoid damaging the boards at all costs but it seems an overly complicated and round about way of doing things when the connector could have been made to be removable.

Also If my memory is correct i seem to remember the two rice bulbs on the back of the deck used to illuminate constantly from power up and this is how the record sensor worked when the door was closed and phono is selected.

Anyhow these are now aged and black and don’t light up at all any longer which may be either dead bulbs or poor connections. They have to be measured and replacements found. Does anyone know the voltage of these?

John
 
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docs

Member (SA)
Jun 26, 2010
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Unfortunately, you do need to separate the front and back to remove the turnrable entirely. But since the cassette belts are original, I would replace those anyway and you can do that at the same time.

Look out for a pdf of instructions in the library Which shows you how to open it and in particular look for the turntable leaf switches which determine if the motor should operate. If the leaf switch is broken or misaligned, the motor will not function.
 

magnetron

New Member
May 2, 2020
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i have now successfully separated both halves and removed the turntable completely thank you. As the PDF says, it really is essential to remove the two screws and let the control board PCB drop down. There really isn’t another way of doing things. At least now the interior can have a thorough deep cleaning while i’m about it. It’s amazing how much dirt this thing collected even when stored for the past thirty years in its box.

As for the one channel being out so many of you suspect the balance slider. Why do you guys always go back to that? Is there a weak point inside?
 

docs

Member (SA)
Jun 26, 2010
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Is it out on all functions? Same in headphones?
If you provide a bit more detail whether the channel ever works or can be heard faintly on high volume etc. it will help someone to guide you a bit better. Could be that if you deoxit/contact clean the controls and function switches you get some sort of change.
Be sure to contact clean the record bar for the cassette mechanism too.