I have successfully replaced the belt in the Aiwa PX257 but it seems I've run into a problem with the leaf switch thingy next to the battery compartment. After trying to clean it I broke off the plastic hinge and may have bent the metal tabs. Without the switch working properly, all I can get the machine to do is cue, whir the motors, and beep. At one point I was able to get it to fast forward and rewind by depressing the metal tabs. It seems it is broken now. Is there an alternative way to get the tape player working, like shorting two points on the board or to solder in a tact switch, like two out of the three bottommost tabs according to the service manual?
The switch you are talking about contains 2 swithces: a tape in switch and a normal/chrome EQ switch. While you can bypass the tape in switch so the unit will act like there's always a tape in, you will lose the functionality of 70us EQ. If the switch cannot be repaired, you have 2 options: either get a cheap donor unit and take the switch from it or bypass the tape in switch. Do not have the service manual of this units so can't tell you which pads you should connect together, but it should be pretty straight forward to find out even without a service manual. Tape in switch is the one near the corner, that sits over the record protect tab of the cassette, while EQ one is more to the middle of the cassette shell.
Looks like I'm gonna have to bypass it with a tact switch or something. The service manual did talk about constructing a jig, so I'm gonna have to bridge three points.
