Does anyone know if the this wire (see pic) that broke loose from the microphone will prevent any audio from going to the headphones when a tape is played?
Not sure I know how to check for that. I guess I need to somehow reattach that wire and hopefully it works and I get audio. Do you know of a way for me to check a short?
sorry, what I meant was that as long as this wire does not touch anything you should be fine, just put a piece of tape over its bare end
Since you have it open I'd check the headphone female jack carefully. The first issue that usually comes up is broken or corroded connections from years of plugging and unplugging headphones. If you're using 1980's headphones, try different pairs, they were also notorious for the wires breaking inside the plastic sheathing. Everything looks great on the outside but the five or six strands of micro wire inside have broken from too much flexing. Most of these old units are super reliable, what else can you pull out from 1980 and it still works fine (except maybe the belt) and me once in a while.
I always have a hard time with those small hanging pieces, Harbor Freight has a little jig to hold small parts but it still isn't easy, there's some better more expensive versions out there.
For striping thin wires I could not live without these: Hard-To-Find Wire Stripper, AWG #20 - 30 Now that I lost them, I bought me this miracle of German toolmaking: Wiha 45810 Wire Stripper ESD Safe
I see that there are 2 wires not connected to the microphone. Anyone know where the black and yellow wire gets attached to on the microphone. See pic....
Instinct says to me that Red and Black are + and -, and the yellow is ground. Looking at that the - goes to the similar size and shape contact and the ground to the smaller contact. However I don’t have a diagram so this is a reasonable guess
+1 to what @speedy2.0 just said. If you have a tester then double-check that White(Yellow?) wire is the same as the Ground. If not then just solder Black at 4:00 pin and White to 7:00 pin at your photo
Thanks for your input. I need now to figure out an easy way to strip the tips of those 2 wires. All of my strippers are way too big.
