DD30:Need some expert advise on center gear

Hi @renzgi i dont understand which part you mean? can you describe further? where is the metal plate? thank you

 

And @renzgi did you see my video of the center condition? Is it ok? Is that amount play/wobble normal?
thanks

 

Wobble like in video is normal.
Metal plate = chassis

 

Thanks @renzgi I understand now.
The spindle seems ok. Definitely not broken. I don’t think it is bent either as the White FWD gear turns in a straight plane.

 

Today I fixed the DD30 center gear to engage cleanly with the other gears in all 3 (play/ff/rw)transport modes !!
As i stated before; the center gear was rotating underneath (missing)the white FWd gear which resulted in inconsistent play and in RW mode both tape spindles would spin.
@renzgi previously posted the very helpful diagram showing how the Fwd and Rw gears engage. Thank you. With this information what I needed to achieve was getting the two gears cleanly/separately engage. See pic(in red)

Because the center gear wasn’t running flat (imagine a warped record) I needed to adjust the plane of rotation. @renzgi told me the amount of “wobble” in my gear was normal so I needed a way to change the plane/pitch/height of the gear.
This is where @mihokm ‘s instructions about correcting a “leaning axle” come in

With the DD30 running I explored which way the axle needed to lean/bend by pushing against it

By pushing the axle in the direction shown I was able to get the center gear to reliably engage with the top white FWD gear in play mode and in RW mode connect with the RW gear while clearing /not touching the small FF gear .

...ok so I will leave the DD30 for a day and check that the axle doesn’t bend back to old position. If it’s still ok I will then proceed with putting the DD30 fully back together.
Cheers

 

Well done 16s.
I am confident that the axle holds position.

 

DD30 is a very nice machine, well done on your repair

don't forget to use locktite in the same places Sony did, I once forgot and something came loose after a few hours of use

 

Absolutely I will. Thank you

 

Mmmmm... as I am reassembling the DD30 I notice that sometimes the head puller arm doesn’t engage/doesn’t catch the center gear when play is started. If I press down a bit more on the engaged play button the arm will then sometimes catch and the head is moved.
Is this just because the head puller arm is worn or is there another common problem you guys know about?

 

I hade a similar problem with my DD33. After several attempts it didn´t engage at all.

 

It looks like the arm gets out of position and then doesn't get "caught" by the center gear as it goes round. I suspect, again , the problem is related to the position/height of the center gear: Where I have slightly lean't the axle in the direction of the pull arm so that it is high enough to engage with the FWD gear in the play position it means that the center gear, as it rotates, is a fraction lower on the puller arm side and so sometimes "misses" the little sprung black part on the puller....

 

Hi 16s,
Presumably the button snaps too early.
dismantle the play button and check, the pen is correctly pressed.

 

Thanks @renzgi I checked the play button. The metal part seems pressed in correctly. It cannot be pressed in any further.
It’s strange sometimes the center gear is not catching the black part on the head puller other times it works fine. It’s like the puller lifts up slightly so the center gear cannot catch it?

 

Hi, I have tried put a shim of tape on the arm puller to make the washer push down (less gap between washer and arm) on the arm so it catches the center gear more reliably.

However still doesn’t work reliably enough. I have a another head puller arm but it was broken - one of the little moldings had broken off. However I managed to glue it:

So I will try this one to see if it operates any differently to the original one.
I wondered if the play button can cause the puller to not operate properly. Can you see anything wrong?


If the other puller doesn’t improve the head engagement I don’t know what else I can do??