Hi all I haven't been a regular poster on S2G so here's an excuse to do so. I recently acquired a full Aiwa 22 series "mini compo" stereo: P22 power amp, C22 control amp, R22 tuner and L22 cassette. Unfortunately this stuff predates MD and CD so there never will be matching players (although if you look for Aiwa 22 on ebay, there's an expensive system there with a home-made CD machine and adapted 'Realistic' power meters). Anyway it was all working except the power amp is a bit slow bringing up the right channel. Previous owner says he's an electronics tech and had not quite finished working through the amp fixing a pervasive dry solder problem after it was kept in a dry warm space for too long. Oh and the tape deck, of course. So my first ever tape belt replacement (I did fix a MD component once). It was all pretty straightforward - belts from Black Belt on ebay, a not-very-helpful tech manual from hifiengine and some happy-to-find pictures via Google that showed where the belts went. The old belts were very far gone and turned to mush when touched. I still have bits of black in my fingernails. Isopropyl alcohol was useful, as were size zero interdental brushes (expensive but can be cleaned up and reused, preferably not orally though, ha ha). So a sweet little deck - with a good reputation - that almost works as good as it looks. The tape counter reset feels 'mushy' and takes several presses to reset. There's an imbalance between the FF and RW speeds. Also, now and again, the tape just stops on play, FF or RW. That is unpredictable and not every time it is used. So I have some questions if anyone cares to answer: - Is there a bedding-in period for new belts, when these problems don't matter? - Is there a 'typical' cause of tape stopping (and could it be the tape/s)? - Are there generic causes for FF/RW speed imbalance and/or the tape counter issue? Kind regards and thanks in advance, Nick
You may have replaced the belts but did you check the condition of the IDLER tire's that are the go between the belts and what actually drives the spindles as when these get worn down no amount of belts replacement will ever re-new this issue. New rubber belt needs no time to 'warm up' or bed in, as they either work or they are the wrong size and cannot transmit the proper amount of torque to turn what ever they are meant to rotate, and too tight of a belt while it may work it can wear out the bearings of what is rotating faster.
Thanks for your advice. The idlers are visually OK and feel OK with a gentle thumbnail press. I don't know how else to verify that. The four FF and RW idlers are all just under 10mm diameter but I can't find any specs on that and they are only listed in the service manual as part of the FF and RW arm assemblies; no separate part numbers. The other central idler, I can't get the calipers near. Having stripped and reassembled to verify all that I now have an overspeed problem... Alvin and the Chipmunks have taken over my tape collection. More fun.
Updating for completeness: tapes now running OK, and the counter is fixed. I removed it from the deck, masked the drive pulley, and gave it a very quick light spray of silicone from the underside (open). It's now working fine. Thanks for interest and assistance. Next real problem is lack of signal strength and dominance of bass in the left channel, which I will report separately and hope someone can assist with.
Hello greetings from Mexico I have that problem with an aiwa deck and my attention is that you fixed it. Do you have images that you can provide? Well, I will try to put a hand because I put the tape but it does not advance well first if it did but after a few minutes it does not advance and I want to see what it can be because it has new bands all changed and it is supposed to work Abla perfection and it is not So
Alex, very sorry I'm a month late picking this up. I have uploaded the only useful image I have, which is the tape path. Kind regards, Nick.
