Repairing mid-'80's Aiwa HS-J09, 9, 600, 10, 36, 360

I think the HS-G08 uses a different mechanism for transport and reversing but that may be an area to look at with the HS-J08 which is the more severe of the two units with this "pulsing" problem.

 

I suspect the same, although don't know how I could make a list unless I go through each service manual individually (some of which are not even available).
If you have any hints of how we could make such a list it would be welcomed.

As far as the G08 goes, logic control mechanisms would expect to have a different code even if they're based on the manual one.

 

My Aiwa HS-J10 has soft touch buttons for forward and reverse, and it has the 2ME-7 mechanism. This makes some sense because the models with mechanical controls, like the J9/09/600 use electrical switches as part of the tape direction switching. Probably they control motor rotation direction and head track switching.

From what I understand of the mechanism, reversing the motor results in the gear assembly A clutch function moving other levers.

So to complicate the matter there are models with a mix. I don't know how to curate accurate mechanism lists, unless Aiwa had such data somewhere.

 

These players keep coming up with faults that I haven't run into before. So I've added a couple to the opening posts.

22. No AM Reception
23. Takeup and Rewind Reel Dislodged

 

Did you resolve the "pulsing" problem? I've found reinstalling the J09 etc. reel caps can cause mechanism gears to be misaligned. But it's more of a ratcheting sound than pulsing.

 

Did you resolve the "pulsing" problem? I've found reinstalling the J09 etc. reel caps can cause mechanism gears to be misaligned. But it's more of a ratcheting sound than pulsing.[/QUOTE]
I've had that ratcheting sound as well but provided I stop any movement from the transport quickly it resolved and then normal Play/FF/REW resumes. My latest attempt to free things up before inserting the cassette and using the little green door activation micro switch to establish it is going to work is spray a minute amount of silicone lubricant on the moving parts that position the tape head assembly in fully extended mode. Initially this did nothing but seems now to have had the desired result. Working well on a G08 at present.

 

Thank you so much for putting these together. I have just acquired J9 and J10 with fully functional radios but broken belts (maybe other mechanical parts too). These posts are more valuable than service manuals to me!

A few notes on the repair: some Chinese sellers have replicated the flat ribbons of all these models, so broken ribbons can be gracefully repaired now. So is the small motor circuit board. Also, have seen remakes of mainboards for many other J-series, but not J9 and J10 yet. Hope mainboard is less of an issue, since caps are better on J9 and J10.

Another note: I think J303 and J505 (including 202/707) use a different mechanism, without the big central gear.

 

You're welcome.

Do you have links for sourcing the Chinese parts? Especially the flat ribbon cables. My searches have been unsuccessful.

I'm currently puzzled by two J9's.

One of them, plays ok in forward and plays ok when I press the button to reverse the tape direction. But if I then press the other button to reverse back to forward play, it pops out of Play, the Play button disengages and it goes into fast forward. Weird.

The other one, the radio only works if the tape drive is running in the background, and only in reverse play. With the tape running forward, the radio doesn't work.

Very strange, never seen these problems before. Making it worse, there are 2 versions of the J9, the J09/600 service manual does not cover them, and there doesn't seem to be a J9 service manual. I think I'll start swapping parts between them.

I bought them as bad wrecks, so it's ok if they both end up with relatively minor residual problems.

 

There are some weird things happening with these full logic controls. I have 6 Aiwas with these soft touch controls and only 1 of them works the same way everytime I use it. All of the others do things like Play on FF or REW buttons, sometimes will not switch between FWD Play and REV Play and one has a Stop function that kicks off REW or FF. Other times they work as they should. Generally the radios work but if you have to run the cassette to get the radio working that is weird because usually you have to select tape mode to power off the radio and save battery when the cassette auto stops. So maybe you need to look at the mode switch internals and the traces that supply power to the radio and the cassette motor.

The ribbon cables I believe are available on eBay ex China but I haven't purchased any yet.
https://ebay.us/m/oeeE29

 

While there is an IC involved in the logic control of the J9/09/600/360 etc. the controls themselves are manual. The J10 has a mix of manual and soft touch switches.

I replaced the tape/radio switch on one of these J9's, so maybe I can swap the switches or put the original back in after cleaning it.

I checked out the eBay seller in China and while it's impressive they are making such parts, I didn't see any for the J9/09/600/360 etc.

 

https://www.goofish.com/search?q=爱华 J9 排线&spm=a21ybx.search.searchInput.0

https://www.goofish.com/search?q=爱华 J9 小齿轮&spm=a21ybx.search.searchInput.0

https://www.goofish.com/search?q=爱华 J9 空板&spm=a21ybx.search.searchInput.0

Remakes of flat ribbon and PCB are available on a Chinese used parts exchange site. Parts itself is inexpensive however they don’t accept other currency or ship overseas. It will take some effort and time to bring to the US, but I think it’s doable.

 

I was able to repair my J600 over the weekend. Luckily it only needed a new belt and re-soldering a loose phone jack connector. It took me couple of hours to clean up the melted belt though, with dental floss picks and glides. I only unsoldered head and equalizer ribbons when removing the main PCB. I found it easier to tilt the board first to remove the speed sensor and switch from chassis, then the motor board and main PCB can be taken out together as one piece.

everything works now, auto reverse, radio, and recording. Build quality was really good, even azimuth still sounds correct on both directions. One question regarding capacitors. The two output capacitors measure 157 and 167 uF, not too bad given 40 years old. Any good brand to recommend if I want to replace with new 220uF? The sound is clear but felt lack of bass comparing to today’s digital players, may need a little boost.

 

Congratulations on the repair. I'm not well informed about which capacitors to recommend. Hopefully others here who knows this stuff will post.

I'm somewhat perplexed by two J9's. They were the ones I bought in the worst condition.

One of them plays forward with no sound from the left channel. After a few seconds it goes into reverse play by itself with no sound from either channel. The radio works fine.
Fast forward winding and fast rewind only work for a few seconds, then the tape drive stops, with or without a tape loaded.

The other J9 plays forward ok and reverses to play in the other direction ok. But if I press the forward button again to return to forward play, the Play button disengages and it goes into fast rewind. Strange. It also makes a slight whining sound from the motor.
Maybe this one works well enough to leave it alone.

 

I'm late to this thread, but may I say that this is an amazingly detailed guide, and first-rate work on your impressive collection of Aiwa models! You say you don't consider your work as "restoration", but I think it most definitely qualifies by any reasonable definition!

Why the particular specialism for this specific model range? I'm sure your skills could be well applied to many other rare and collectable makes and models. I have several Aiwas with the Alpha mechanism, but haven't (yet) worked on the 2ME-7. You've got me sufficiently curious that I've bought a J36 for repair.. no doubt this thread will come in very handy!

 

The J36 is an excellent choice to get familiar with the 2ME-7 mechanism. It (and the J360 and J85) are not very desirable and so are not a big loss if you wreck them. Despite, so far as I can tell, having the same performance (minus equalizer) as the coveted J09 etc. I trust you have or will get a copy of the mechanism service manual.

I don't consider my work to be restoration because I don't do instrumented calibration, my paint repairs are not professional level, I don't get oem-quality graphics made and my replacement parts are just not as good as original knobs etc. from donor units. I don't do preventive replacement of capacitors.

I also start with such damaged units that they cannot be made like new. Such as repairing a plastic crack or chip. But they are pretty good, and a vast improvement on how I received them. I do have one that is almost cosmetically perfect.

Why this narrow model range? I bought a J09, new, when they came out. I bought it from a high-end audio store because I trusted them to carry only the best of any audio category. Turns out decades later they knew what they were doing as these became one of the most desirable models.

It got used a lot, including for a bicycle trip to the Arctic Ocean in 1990, and on many mountaineering trips. It was extensively damaged when it came off the belt clip and fell down a cliff.

A couple of years ago I decided to digitize my cassette collection. I tried a new "walkman" that could convert cassettes into mp3's. It was a piece of shit. I had it replaced and the replacement was the same. So I had the choice of buying a decent cassette player or fixing the broken and long-ignored J09. I decided in the interest of minimizing consumption to see if I could fix the J09.

To help troubleshoot the J09, I bought a second one, also not working, for troubleshooting. Eventually I got both of them fully working and began to make replacement knobs etc. To further upgrade their cosmetics and for some fittings, I bought a 3rd one. But I got it all fixed up also. And over and over. A few because they were so wrecked they were dirt cheap. So now I have 14, of which one is a total write-off and one only partly works. It all followed from that 1986 purchase.

Why not more? Because I've never been a collector. I have no practical use for the cassettes, let alone the players. I don't need the money from the value I add to them. I've done enough of them that it's become routine verging on boring. I don't want to buy fancy repair equipment because I'm not that serious about doing this. I'm tired of and wary of encountering problems I haven't seen before and can't fix. (I have one right now that the radio won't work unless the Play button is engaged.) On one hand these are satisfying to work on because they are difficult, but that same difficulty can get annoying. The worst aspect is causing collateral damage while doing the deeper repairs. Just changing a belt on these models risks doing damage that is challenging to fix. And that is why I don't offer to do repairs for other people.

To branch out into other models would mean figuring out their peculiarities, getting manuals, parts, donor units etc.

I've decided to proceed by obtaining original headphones and microphones to go with my units. So far I have 5 mics and 2 Aiwa HP-M11 headphones. The headphones are extremely rare partly because such accessories typically go missing, and also because they were prone to breaking and so being thrown away.

 

A ratcheting sound can be caused by putting the takeup reels on the wrong sides. They are "right-handed and left-handed".