Drive belt source for 1980's hi-fi casette player wanted

[Phil Addison]

stock.

[david sarkey]

a good selection of drive belts at realistic prices.

Living in London I've always bought over the counter so can't comment on their mail order service.

DS

[Phil Addison]

That one looks the biz, thanks very much. I would have tried it had I not already ordered a kit from the states. Oh, its .uk btw not .com

to everyone that's given suggestions.

Phil

[Dave Liquorice]

And a rubber band isn't consistent enough in thickness and/or tension to provide constant torque so wow and flutter figures rise. It'll work but sound 'orrible.

[Davey]

Phil,

I finished replacing the 30-year old and disintegrated belts on my AIWA cassette machine today, but there is some other mechanical problem, in that the take-up spool doesn't rotate. It's not a belt problem, it's gear driven, but there are all sorts of levers and strange ratchet things underneath, and needless to say, the manual just sort of, kind of shows them in exploded view, but gives absolutely zero idea of how they are meant to work. The 'Adjustments' section is all about electronic setup. So although the deck gets generally good ratings from reviewers, even now, I think I will put it back into its box, and maybe, one day, have another go, but I will get something new(er) to replace it. Maybe see if there is one on e-bay that works, and I can send back if it doesn't. Then at least I have a stock of spare parts. Of course, it would cost too much to get a pro. to repair it.

Just so you are aware of what someone in a similar position to yourself found when the belts were changed. I wish you good luck.

[The Other Mike]

Does it do this without a tape?

It might possibly have something similar to VCR's - a clutch below the spools, or even a brake lever.

[The Natural Philosopher]

takeup spools are variable speed devices and tend to achieve this by some sort of clutch that slips - from memory anyway.

And were extremely prone to fail to do this judging by the huge number of cassette tapes unspooled at the roadside one used to find.

surely if all you want to do is transcribe, a car cassette player can be had from any second hand junk store.

[Davey]

With or without

Quite probably, there are 'things' under there. But I have spent a fair amount of time looking and prodding, but without knowing better what I am looking for, I'm lost. And I can't help feeling that, if it has one such problem, there are more waiting in the wings. Also, there was a lot of gunk inside from the disintegrated belts, and although I have removed and cleaned up everything I can find, more seems to be hiding whenever I put a finger anywhere inside. Part of the mechanism under the spool was covered in the stuff. The belts were so disintegrated that it was hard to tell which new one went where.

[Davey]

Plan A was to resurrect the deck, as it had served me faithfully 30 years ago. The ultimate aim is to transfer my old tapes to digital format, where they are safer than as old magnetic tapes, so at least a stereo output is required. I had wondered about one of those Ion Tape2MP3 things, but they look cheap and nasty, for 60 quid yet, my boy.

[John Williamson]

Take up spools on cassette decks are normally driven by a slipping clutch made up of a felt ring and a weak spring. Sometimes the clutch is part of the spool assembly, sometimes it's seperate and drives the rim of the takeup spool. The felt goes hard and/ or gets contaminated. The clutches are repairable by dismantling them, and cleaning or replacing the felt. The unit is normally together by a tiny pingfuckit embedded in the top, round the metal spindle. The reel assembly also often sticks to the spindle and needs freeing off. They're normally not hard to sort out with a magnifying glass, some meths or IPA and some small tweezers and screwdrivers.

Some cassette decks (Philips ones come to mind here) also electrically sense the rotation of the spools, and if nothing is turning, they stop the motor. Some sense the tape by pressing a finger against where the tape should be, and if there's no tape there or the finger doesn't move far enough, that engages the auto stop and puts on the brakes.

[Huge]

Your timing is, sadly, very poor. I gave away a perfectly good (and at the time of purchase very expensive) cassette deck to the local charity shop a few weeks ago.

Sorry.

[John Williamson]

For the ultimate quality, buy a Nakamichi Dragon for a grand or so, have it serviced, do the job and sell it again for a profit. If you can ainfd one, the Sony Walkman pro is a very good machine, but they're a bit like hen's teeth to find.

The ION tape2MP3 unit I have ( a twindeck unit) is adequate for transferring most prerecorded and home made tapes, and is of similar quality playback to most reasonable home decks, and unless you had a better deck than most people when you made the recordings, it'll match most home recording quality.

The worst thing about it is the ION software, which won't work without iTunes. I use Audacity for the audio capture with the built in Dolby turned off, and there's a plugin for Winamp which can correct for phase problems caused by azimuth errors and has an adjustable Dolby simulation to allow for incorrect levels on the tape. Get it sounding good, then use Winamp to write a corrected file at many times real speed.

[NT]

In answer to both points, rubber bands vary. I wouldnt pick horribly uneven ones. Just pull the band and see that it stretches out evenly.

Wow and flutter is only an issue when driving a tape deck capstan, and the huge flywheel combined with a smooth even rubber band means there's no issue. When trivial issues can happen is if you greatly overstretch a band to fit, but again in the real world problems arent caused, as long as you dont do that for a capstan. I only did this once, with a tape counter, the result was simply that it didnt move as smoothly.

Re life expectancy, I've used them a fair few times, and only had one break later, so now I tend to use them rather than muck about getting

3rd party black bands. I'd avoid stationery bands where fitting the thing is a pain - a certain technics cassette deck comes to mind - in such case you may as well stretch the job out and get a nice black band. I'd also advise caution with some pioneer tape decks, where to work properly its essential that each belt have a certain tension compared to other belts in the system, upset that ratio and it just wont work.

NT

[geoff]

The cassette - couple of decent tape decks here

or is it personal stuff

[Davey]

It would probably help if I could watch someone do one first, though! But thanks for the help. I am in new territory here. There is a rubber-tyred wheel that sits near the take-up spool, but it never seems to do anything much. Maybe it's jammed somewhere.

That works as described if there is no tape, and if there is a tape, it seems to let it go on unspooling as long as it wants. So that part is working. I'll take another look tomorrow, but I have put a bid on a different AIWA deck on e-bay, and then at the local auction house tonight, I saw a complete sound system, record deck, double tape deck, receiver, 'speakers and a piece of furniture to house it all (except the 'speakers). All components are Technics, matched in appearance. IF it all works (no guarantees), then it must be worth a few bob. Trouble is, there is nowhere to put all that stuff, and I can only imagine the noise from SWMBO.

[Phil Addison]

OIC, that's a kind offer thank you, but I've ordered a kit now allegedly for this actual Pioneer model so I should be ok when it arrives. Its also an appalling quality recording that I want to drag the best out of, so will need a lot of nursing.

[grimly4]

Many of them used a felt pad underneath the take-up spool, which gets shiny and flat - worth checking.

[Davey]

Thanks, but I have found the problem. The OP's mention of 'jelly' in relation to the old belts matched what I saw. Unfortunately, it also describes what is called a 'drive rubber', which was (note tense) on the drive spindle. I was wondering why, every time I inserted and removed the spindle, it came out covered in belt jelly, but now I know why. And I don't know if I can find a replacement drive rubber. As far as I can see, everything else appears to be in working order, but it's one of those: 'fix this, find that' deals. Also, looking at the location of the drive rubber, I wonder how the hell it's installed, it's tight around the spindle, in a tiny gap in a bearing housing thing, and surrounded by lots of other stuff. Yikes.

[Rob]

I was stuck for a new belt for my Vibraphone. Eventually I found

who had something close. Worked a treat.

Rob

[Davey]

Thanks, I have sent them an enquiry. Due to the lack of any of the old part, except a black smear, I am unable to provide a detailed pattern! I am going to try the place that I got the belts from.