Ferguson Videostar 3V44

Excellent machines but not the easiest to work on. Biggest problem with the deck is the type of black grease used which turns into a sticky goo causing loading to stall. Clean it all off and renew with either JVC Kanto blue grease or a molybdenum type.

The PSU has a number of CPs which are a sort of fuse which go o/c usually for no reason causing what appear to be odd deck faults. The component references are CP1, 2 etc. and are usually marked F10, F15 or N25. Take the body number and multiply by 40 give the rating in mA e.g. 25 x 40 = 1000mA. Beware also there are several revisions on the PSU, yours looks to be an early one so may match the manual.

When I had a small retail business in the mid nineties I used to buy batches of these in tens reconditioned and boxed from Centrevision in Cardiff. I think I paid about £90 and sold them for £150 with a six month guarantee, never had one back ! They looked modern at that time and £150 was a bargain, I did think they had a scart connector though. £2 sounds a bargain to me !

I never really got to grips with VCR’s, started repairing them around 1978 and was out of trade by around 1980.

What I do remember were belt faults, end of tape lamps, heads and occasional components. The Betamax heads required mechanical setup and although easy enough had to be done correctly.

The biggest problem that I found at that time was sourcing VHS tapes, PAL ones were in short supply.

I will be watching the thread with interest, see what I missed.

I have to say I don't know any engineer that couldn't wait to go to work to repair video recorders. They were very much disliked. Being mechanical they wear, get out of alignment, they are susceptible to kids putting toys in the flap, spillage, customer damage, contaminated tapes from video shops and electronic faults, not the most reliable consumer item. 

I did loads of videos from the 1500 right through V2000, VHS & Beta, done the C&G VCR course and many in house courses, have to say I'm glad to see the back of them.

I didn’t know about the C&G video course, I had to read and learn from what information was available and the usually very well written service manuals.

All for nought, I left to do other things but the fault finding experience I gained in the TV trade helped me enormously when I went to fixing mini computers and their peripherals. 

Posted by: Jayceebee

Biggest problem with the deck is the type of black grease used which turns into a sticky goo causing loading to stall. Clean it all off and renew with either JVC Kanto blue grease or a molybdenum type.

Hi John,

Thanks for the tips, as ever a mine of useful advice  ? 

Searching did not yield results for VCR lubricant, however I found this molybdenum grease, is it suitable?

I think we were one of the first to do a City and Guilds VCR course at Kilmarnock college. Clydesdale were NEC dealers and we got a course on the PVC740 Beta machine, it was the first in house VCR course I went on. The Japanese trainer was brilliant.

I too used to get these from Centrevision in Cardiff! Along with all those lovely 28" Salora sets nobody wanted.. 

I wonder what happened to the lovely Wendy?

Posted by: crustytv

Searching did not yield results for VCR lubricant, however I found this molybdenum grease, is it suitable?

Hard to tell but looks a bit thick to me. Googling "JVC Kanto Grease" brought up a result but at an eye watering price for a small tub, to be honest this would probably suffice.

I took a few large screen stereo (non-NICAM) sets, (granadacolour badge) they had one main vertical board that swung downwards for service. The few I had were dogged with intermittent faults (channel changing, no text etc.) so did not bother with them, but they did sell well. I always assumed Wendy was a member of the family that owned it, but I may be wrong.

Despite the major changes to Sloper Road, the building that housed Centrevision is still there, printers now. I don't know when they closed, but I stopped using them in about 1997.

Posted by: mfd70

I took a few large screen stereo (non-NICAM) sets, (granadacolour badge) they had one main vertical board that swung downwards for service. The few I had were dogged with intermittent faults (channel changing, no text etc.) so did not bother with them, but they did sell well. I always assumed Wendy was a member of the family that owned it, but I may be wrong.

Despite the major changes to Sloper Road, the building that housed Centrevision is still there, printers now. I don't know when they closed, but I stopped using them in about 1997.

Wendy was the daughter. A good resolder of the plug in modules was always a requirement! The one's I loved were the Salora M's. Incredible set, sold like hot cakes.

Hi Chris.

For grease I'd use White Lithium grease. You can get aerosol cans of it in autoshops, just spray a little into a jar and use a fine brush to put it onto the guide runners, front loading grease points etcetera. It's a very good plastic grease and I've used a little on the teeth of the cam gears and other parts that need something thicker than oil. 

Something that has come to mind is that these machines could suffer from crushing on whites in E-E mode and playback, usually caused by poor earthing of the RF splitter/modulator frame. Easy to cure with a hot iron but getting the modulator out can be baffling at the first attempt. Prise out the white hinges of the top main pcb from the mounting point at the rear and move it forward, then remove the rear AV input/output board by pushing the BNC sockets in an upwards direction. All will now be clear, unplug, remove the modulator and it's rear cover, resolder all the earth lands including the sockets.

Posted by: Jayceebee

Excellent machines but not the easiest to work on. Biggest problem with the deck is the type of black grease used which turns into a sticky goo causing loading to stall. Clean it all off and renew with either JVC Kanto blue grease or a molybdenum type.

.

I still have a small tub of the blue Kanto grease (JVC/Ferguson), and also about half a tube of the white Molykote grease as recommended by Philips at the time, I did have the original  "Lube kit" by Hitachi which contained a largish tub of butter coloured soft grease called Floil but sadly ended up running out of it plus Hitachi stopped supplying the kit.

The Hitachi Kit also originally contained a thick black graphite type grease which was even thicker/stiffer than the Fergy  stuff mentioned earlier,

I think Hitachi stopped using this thick black grease later anyway, Hitasol I think it was called.