1979 Ferguson Videostar Deluxe 3V16

If there are no manuals available there are a number of reference and VCR articles in PT during the 1980’s, some by Mike Phelan. If you have the copies it’s worth looking through them, if not American radio history have them.

Long gone I'm afraid together with back tension gauge, torque gauge etc,  ? maybe fellow member Red to Black still has a copy.

What's wrong with it? For signal/mechanical faults you may be able to get away with 3V22/8922 manual which I believe is available as a download somewhere. If it's servo then you will need the specific data as it's a fearsome beast, if my memory is correct the 3V23/8924 uses the same BA841A IC so some cross referencing may be possible up to a point. JVC learned a lot with the 3V16 as the servo was very problematic in that even humidity levels could have an effect, the 3V23 was much more stable.

I was right about the BA841A being used on the 3V23/8924/HR-7700. you can download the manual from here  http://freeservicemanuals.info/en/servicemanuals/viewmanual/JVC/HR7700E/Ferguson3v23/

For a little light bedtime reading on the 3V23 servo operation go to section 3-4. Haven't been able to locate a 3V22 or 3V16.

Thanks to a tip off from a guest reading this thread, the service manual is now in the data library. Its actually for the JVC HR 3660E which would appear to be the equivalent device. 

As to what's wrong with it, I've done nothing more than power it up. When inserting a tape and selecting FF/REW you can hear the motor spin but there is no tape movement, a few seconds and it shuts off the action. Likewise if play is used. I suspect its highly probable belt trouble though though that's a guess as I've not investigated any further. I wanted to get the service manual rather than trying to guess at disassembly before proceeding any further. 

The 3V16 is in very good condition, I also have a 3292 which is a little worse for wear. I had planned to use it for spares but I've started to discover that there's some differences between the two. I'll take some photo's and blog it at some point.

Started a repair Blog page

Good machines these 3V16, like a 3V22 with a freeze frame pause. I have about 10 3292/3V00/3V16/3V22 machines. Belt kits are rare, i got my last couple of kits from New Zealand, Malc.

Back in the day a head and tape path clean, cassette lamp, belt kit, pinch roller or take-up clutch would resolve 80% of faults. A fairly common problem of the mechacon shutting the machine down after a few seconds was due to the drum motor flywheel sliding down the shaft due to a loose grub screw. On the flywheel there are two small magnets which pass near what resembles an audio tape head. This is used to generate the 25Hz drum flip flop signal, if this is missing or low amplitude the mechacon would think the head isn't spinning and the machine would enter stop mode after a 3 second delay.

Pay attention to the belt that passes over the take-up clutch item 38 on page 4-3, when fitting a replacement people would often fit it on the wrong side of the pulley causing the take-up reel to rotate in the wrong direction.

Posted by: Jayceebee

Long gone I'm afraid together with back tension gauge, torque gauge etc,  ? maybe fellow member Red to Black still has a copy.

 

I have a JVC HR-3320 "paper" manual somewhere, but IIRC this is basically the 3V22 with a slightly better/different signal and/or servo circuit. it was such a long time ago now  but I think JVC reserved the slightly higher spec (relatively speaking ? ) for their own branded models rather than the many OEM versions.

RE: 3V16 was this the same as the so-called deluxe version  with the two tracking controls and (wired) remote pause ? (Derr I just read the title properly!!  ? , it has been a long week at work! ? )

There were if my memory served at least two versions mechanically speaking of the same basic deck, the main differences  being in the take-up clutch area with differing belt kits, one version used one long belt and the other used two shorter ones with a different pulley/clutch arrangement, or am I mixing my decks up here again ?  (not be the first time lol).

Ps,I still have Fergy/JVC alignment tapes, back tension cassette and take-up gauge, sadly lost/misplaced the ground plane and height gauges though. 

Posted by: Red_to_Black

There were if my memory served at least two versions mechanically speaking of the same basic deck, the main differences  being in the take-up clutch area with differing belt kits, one version used one long belt and the other used two shorter ones with a different pulley/clutch arrangement, or am I mixing my decks up here again ?  (not be the first time lol).

That was mid way through 3V22/8922 production, by that time the 3V16/8904 had been retired and replaced with the superb all singing, all dancing 3V23/8924/HR-7700. The new mechanism had a slightly annoying trait in that when pressing stop it would wind back around two or three minutes worth of tape when unloading, not great if you were making a new recording after something you wanted to keep.

Yes I knew there were 2 versions of the 3V23 main panel (underneath one) with the long and short (heatsink) versions for the problem you are describing, but the one or two belt version of the piano key models was also a problem when it came to ordering clutches and belt kits for us non-dealers, often we were supplied with the wrong one/s, especially if we ordered without looking first at which particular version was actually fitted to the machine in for repair first ? ,

The wind back issue only affected the later 3V22/8922 that I was aware of. The newer smaller mechacon on the 3V23 I'm sure was due to improvements in the NEC CPU IC1. Don't quote me as I may be very wrong but I think the extra CPU for the tape remaining indicator on the early board was deleted and incorporated into the new software on IC1 in the later version. Unfortunately the HR-7700 manual I have only shows the early board.

Re: 3V23 fine machines the "rolls Royce", of VCRs must have been bloody expensive to produce though.

The larger heatsink version must have had a smaller PCB, ergo it must have used more advanced integrated circuits and a smaller foot print circuitry wise, to be honest though I forget now which is which it is such a while ago, it was an impressive machine still the remote being a veritable complex beast, and the backtension arm with its integrated index.marker head was a big advance for the day, I must admit though my personal soft spot out of the machines of this period was the 4 headed LP version the 3V32, similar features but with the added advantages of LP, tape was still fairly expensive (for me at least) at this time.

The earlier versions of the 3V23  suffered from a slight tape looping problem (brake timing IIRC) which is why I always thought the that was the main reason for the updated mechacon ? board was released in the first instance, I used to know all this at one point in time but as time goes by I seem to get even more rustier ? 

Ahh, now that rings a bell. Also the old mechacon was prone to ejecting the tape with some random button pressing sequences on the remote, that was also supposed to be sorted with the later board but both problems never fully went away.

So JC, did the 1 belt/2 belt alternative clutch arrangement only apply to the 3V22 model ?  

I only ever saw a few "deluxe" models, probably about the same amount of the earlier 3V00 models, so in a nutshell we saw far more 3V22 models, this was probably our fault at the time by just referring to all similar models as a "piano key machine" even though we were generally aware that there were significant differences between various models.

Ps. we probably either made or came across a few "Bitsas" aswell ? 

The interior of this 3V16 looks to be in equally good condition as the outside, all the belts appear intact, they are not gooey, and would seem be still under tension, the rubber wheels also look good and not sticky or misshapen. I feel like I did when I first peered into a TV almost 10 years ago, filled with dread and total lack of anything familiar or knowing where on earth to start.  ? 

Check the cassette light is intact first 🙂

The belts tend to get hardened and/or misshaped and cracked rather gooey on these machines, not Philips doncha know ? 

I did and it is  ? 

Sorry was editing previous post re:belts and being a bit flippant (it is Friday ? ) as you posted.