Hi There

Having recently purchase a Sharp GF-9090...last night it decided it was very hungry and decided to chew up some of my beloved tapes from long ago !

Unfortunately one tape was lost whilst another is in need of some serious repair, seriously pissed !

Can anyone here advise how to stop it chewing my tapes ! I've checked the capstan and pinch roller and everything seem aligned and flushed. The pinch roller is still rock hard and hasn't turned to goo. Trying to understand whether the main drive belt needs replacing and whether this is the cause (can't turn with enough force and hence is out-of-synch with the pinch wheel) ?

How much of a job / effort is it to dismantle replace the belt in a Sharp GF-9090 ??

Any advice or experiences would be much appreciated - hate to take a hammer to it (just yet!)

Thanks, Kidofthe1980s

In almost every case where I see this happen, it is due to the take up reel not keeping up with the capstan needle. The takeup reel should lead the capstan needle keeping tension on the tape preventing it from becoming loose. If the capstan feeds the tape faster than the take up reel can handle, the loose tape always gets chewed up. A simple test is to press play without a tape and check to see if the take up reel can provide enough torque. If the reel is very easy to stop, then you have a problem. The only accurate method is with a torque guage but no-one has one of those..... Anyhow, the simple unscientific method is often good enough to determine if that is the problem.

Loose or stretched belts are frequent culprits as well as worn takeup reel felt clutches (Sanyos). Good luck.

Thanks for your helpful advice...will investigate again this evening ! Hoping to bringing this back to life...

"rock hard"
Should be like rubber.
If its that hard might not be good either.
Sometimes they dry out and become too hard.
But pinch rollers usually dont become goo.