I am trying to bring this f-64 back to life. It's got a few issues, like low volume and cassette not turning. I found a repair video on Youtube that talks to fixing the the volume and belt replacement. While I am waiting for a belt and some capacitors to arrive I want to investigate an issue I see with one of the pinch rollers. One of the two pinch rollers is not making contact with the capstan. On most tape decks this would cause the tape to skew. (I don't have a belt to test tape travel, so I don't yet know how much trouble this will cause) The roller contact issue is often the result of aging lubricant gone sticky with age. When the lube turns to glue the roller arm doesn't pivot as it should. Disassembly, cleaning and re-lubricating usually fixes this problem. My question is: is it common for walkmen to have this issue? Anybody else experience this and how did you fix it?
here's the large gap between the roller and the capstan on the take-up side It just occurred to me that each pinch roller might be for a specific direction of tape travel. One for forward playing and the other for reverse play. Maybe this gap won't be there when playing the other direction? I don't have a belt yet so I'll have to wait to see. Please forgive me I'm new to this!
You are correct in your last assumption. Only one pinch rolled engages the capstan depending on the side being played. Once you have a belt in situ you should see one roller disengage and the other engage when you auto reverse.
The autoreverse is a real fantastic piece of technology... If iT works correctly.... Good luck and keep US updated !!!
A new belt is on it's way from Marion. I'll update this thread with progress. I am much more familiar fixing full-sized gear and this is my first look inside a portable player. The engineering in these little boogers is amazing!
The belt arrived today (thanks Marion, that was fast!) and I can see that only one of the capstans is engaged for each direction of play mode. What I was seeing is normal and I was looking for trouble where there was none!
