Hiya! My name's Charlie. I'm French but I currently work and live in England as a MFL teacher. I'm too young to have known the golden age of tapes, but I've been fascinating about this for quite some time. Recently, an opportunity popped up for me to acquire 2 Harvard LMR-1. They looked in really good condition and came with the original packaging, instructions and headphones. So I bought them, obviously. Now, I am waiting to receive them, but I have had a conversation with the previous owner about their current state and here is what she said: "The body is made of metal. It was manufactured in Japan. We think the inside of both items needs some oil. They both make a sound when you play a cassette. But the music sounds quite shaky." I know some people would have hesitated being a deficient product, but since I'm somewhat handy, I thought I'd give it a try and look online for help when it comes to fixing those players. And here I am. If anyone knows anything about those players, I'd be happy to get some info =) Apparently they are completely similar to the Unisef TU-1.
Worn out drive belts could cause that. Look around this and other sites for the instructions on how to change them.
Post pictures of your machines! It will likely need a serious clean and lubrication/grease, new belts. Old rubber tyres need serious cleaning with isopropyl, and even then it might be better to replace them as well
I will probably get a set of new belts just in case of an I'll post pictures whenever I can. I know that @nickeccles mentionned those Cassette Players so I hope he can help me out on this one. @speedy2.0 You mention lubrification/grease. What product would you use and on which parts? And any idea where I can find a new rubber tyre then?
The lubricant is for the parts which have spindles inside, like the spinning discs for the belts. The parts which are cogs or slide horizontally need a small amount of grease, like vaseline. Too much grease can make the switches too slippery, so the locks do not engage, like the play lock won’t engage. The oil can be Swiss watch oil ( I have möbius 8000) but only a really tiny amount less than a pin head drop, and really only if you have removed the entire assembly and touched the spindles. Do not get oil everywhere! If you can see oil, clean it off. It’s only for making the discs glide, most often they just have some grease which needs cleaning. Tyres, you take the current one and remove it carefully. Then measure the rubber part and the hole, and see if you can find one same sized on eBay, or www.fixyouraudio.com has loads of tyres. Like the belts, they are generic so you measure them. And try to get the same cross section, some belts are round and others are square and it can make a difference
Sorry again, but English isn't my native language and I'm not quite sure what you mean by spindles (Google Image shows me the bars of a banister when looking it up). Would it be too much to ask you to so you to show me a picture of what we're talking about here? Also it would be better if I could simply see the parts which would need oiling. I will get my hand on that möbius 8000 since you vouch for it. And I have already read the warnings about using the oil on the cassette desk. I will try to find a precision syringe to make sure that the job is done clean! I already checked fixyouraudio and their tyre section. I like that they show how to know if it needs changing or not. So I'll take a look and decide then. Could you also explain what you meant by "Same cross section"? Thank you again for your help and sorry if I am abusing your kindness ^^"
No, it is no problem! The oil is for fast spinning parts, so if you have to remove this part then consider some oil. The shaft of this disc pictured, is often held by a belt at the gold coloured disc. The cross section of the belt is the shape if you cut the belt and look at the flat ends you just created. A round cross section looks like a O and a square looks like a square. But the difference can mean it slips off very easily if you have the wrong one.
Ok, received it. The cassette player looks in an amazing condition, but when playing my Guns N' Roses tape, it was indeed very "shaky" and weird. After watching some videos online about the effects of bad belts, I came to the conclusion that it is indeed the belt that need changing. I haven't received the new belts yet, but I thought I would open it up to take a look at the belts and tyres. First of all, I was surprise by the state of the cassette player. It really felt almost new. Secondly, I was surprise to see how unpractical some screws located... I struggled for a good 30 minute to take the hardest one off. But then the beast was opened and I could finally glance a what was inside it. I pulled a bit the belt to check their elasticity, and indeed, they were extremely loose. Also checked the tyres. They were "dusty" but seemed to be in quite a good state. However, after putting everything back together and trying again with the same tape to make sure I didn't destroy anything in the process, the cassette player didn't play the music anymore... It works, FF/Play/RW/Pause etc. All buttons are working, but there is no more music in the headphones when playing. Any idea what might be wrong here? What could I have damaged?
If there is no hiss, just silence, then you may have knocked the play back head wires from their solder points. If there is a hiss then the head is not meeting the tape correctly, again it’s a loose wire. It’s almost certainly a loose wire, especially if it was working before. Or, it’s possible when replacing the case the wires have moved across a terminal by accident causing a short
Nevermind, I actually reopened it and manage to "fix" it. I somehow hadn't put the volume parts in the "buttons" the volume was therefore stuck at zero no matter how I moved the buttons. But now they are back in the right place. Having reopened the whole thing to see how to change the belt made me confident that I can do it, so if I receive them tomorrow (Royal Mail grrrr) I should be able to make it work again. Will get back to you if there are more problems. Here is a picture of the beast =) Harvard LMR-1 by Mossback posted Apr 8, 2019 at 6:17 PM
I just realized that this is maybe not the right place to post all these things. I'll create a thread in the right section.
I had the Harvard LMR-1 when I was 14 in 1980 & have been looking for another one ever since then!! The Unisef TU-1 is identical in every way & very easy to work on! Here's mine undergoing a loving restore - & these are very good quality when budget generic units meant you still got a decent stereo! https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1!30988&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1
Well, I've got 2 of those if you're interested haha. But yeah, they're indeed identical. I was scared it would be a bit too difficult, but I changed the belts without any problem and it works perfectly now. I've got more photos in another more appropriate thread if you want. I'll tag you there. Also I was very surprised by the quality of such a "low-end" walkman. Would love to be able to compare its audio quality to that of high-end walkman of the same era. Really beautiful Unisef TU-1 by the way!
