I was sorting through some items and came across this at the bottom of a drawer, old faithful that went with me on my travels, I no longer have any cassettes but not wanting to throw it away I thought to test it.
The radio works fine but the reels and capstan didn’t go round but I could hear the motor. It’s a small thing for me to try to work on but worth a try. The player came apart very easily and there was a drive belt lying in the bottom. I looked on line found belts for £6.95 including postage from Birmingham so worth a go.
It went back together again very easily, I have no tape at the moment but the capstan and reels work correctly so should be ok, will test when I obtain a tape.
Frank
Nice to see one of these getting some love! Panasonic seem to have rubber parts that either turn to goo, or go rock hard! It might be worth having a quick poke at the pinch roller before you stick a tape in it, I have had a few machines where the roller has gone hard, doesn’t do the tapes much good!
Regards,
Lloyd
@lloyd Thank you Lloyd, I have just had look and it feels and looks ok, hopefully it will be fine. I don’t have the dexterity to try to change it even if a new one was available. I have ordered a cassette “Pictures at an Exhibition “ Mussorgsky, one of the first tapes I bought to use with the machine so hopefully both machine and tape will work well and it will bring back a few memories.
Frank
Haha, yes they do!! Sharp pinch rollers turn to goo, whilst Panasonic’s go hard! And Philips… goo all round! Strangely all the Sony decks I have encountered so far have only had stretched belts, and the pinch rollers have all been fine, those were mostly from the 80’s, the Panasonic ones I have had go hard all seem to be from around the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s, one being a practically new mini system that I bought around 2004, I barely used the tape decks on it, and all the rollers are set like concrete now, there’s no wear on the heads at all! On a mid 90’s boombox type thing the rollers had gone hard and some sort of crystals were growing on them, and the capstans had gone rusty where the rollers had contacted them, made a right mess!
I had another check on the pinch roller and it seems ok. The cassette tape arrived this morning so in it went and music was heard. The player is now back in working condition which is great.
Frank
