Okey-dokey! After several years of collecting boomers and always lusting for the granddaddy M-90. I finally have one, thanks to BIN quick draw action on ebay. Ford93 and redbenjoe should get an honorable mention for being full-on enablers, too!

Well, its not a perfect example as the tape deck does not work (electronic issue, belts are there) and it has some not-so-major cigarette burn marks on the top. Another observation is that the blue speakers look they may have been painted black at some point, because they're too black for natural coloration. The speakers are blue from the inside, as you can see from the pics. Its a very good example of a "survivor" unit. Line in needed some deoxit on the phone/line switch at the back before it came to full life with my minidisk or WM-D3 hooked up to it. I'm listening to it right now and it thumps quite nicely. Radio sounds fantastic, too.

Overall, I think the cosmetics are a solid 8 out of 10, with some minor dings and marks here and there in the top trim and the markings on the top. Plus, it looks like a previous owner marked stations on the tuner glass as there are some black marks. And lastly, it has one original antenna, and a much smaller replacement antenna on it.

I'm very pleased it survived shipping, thanks to the creative diagonal and sufficiently secure packing job by the seller.

A peek to the inside revealed that the belts are all still in place, but there is some nasty corrosion on the upper right corner of the of the deck's back circuit board (also pictured). I hope the problem can be narrowed down to that... Hopefully, this deck will sing again in the not too distant future!

Of course a post like this is worthless wihtout pics, so here they are:

I would say that the corroded area of the board would be the first place I would look at, would it be possible to swap out that board with one someone else may have just to see if it works,
I guess you would need to find someone who may have an extra board first.

i dont think that is corrosion,it looks like glue or flux,alot of boards have it..could be a risistor or a transistor,or even a burned out motor..nice m90 tho,the cosmetic bits dont look that bad,i would`nt be upset if i got one in that condition..

john --good to see your usual great photograghy combined with 'the worlds best' sounding one piece box !!
and now that you have had your peaceful moments to enjoy the music it delivers --

your rating upgrade to "A" is justified

you got a new son AND an m90 all in recent days !!!!!!!!!

congratulations

the board in question looks like its been worked on before someone may have tried to fix it at some point ,great box !

i think the rc m80 shares several cassette deck components with the m90 ,if so you may be able to get the replacement parts from an m80 scrapper.

nice.

hey JT --
NO $$ charge for using MY lovely box for YOUR avitar

ok its normal what you guys are seeing that brown stuff is from factory the grey resistor is a fusible resistor jvc uses that to protect that board and the amp board from any overload that would cause a fire hazzard and thats whats writen inside the back of the radio now after so many years that brown stuff is known to cause corrosion in those areas where they apply that glue so it needs to be cleaned and some of the contacts resoldered to get it back to working order

quote:

Originally posted by redbenjoe:
hey JT --
NO $$ charge for using MY lovely box for YOUR avitar

Down boy!!!! Its Fat-deezie's box now!!! And I'm not charging PanFan for using my RX-5600 pic as his avatar, either!!!

But, I'll send you another mixtape as payment if it will make you happy!

ooops - forgot about that -- your tape is da bomb --
we are EVEN !!!!

Very nice JT! I'm hoping to get an M90 someday....

Thanks a bunch, gang!

I have since cleaned up that area on the board with deoxit and a jewelers screwdriver, but it did not solve the problem. That board will need to come out. I am going to try to source one of those boards...

Anyone got a spare??

Welcome to the M90 Club, congrats on the pickup.

Did you try to measure voltage to the motor? I believe the schematics are floating around on the net.......download them and use them to solve the problem. I would bet finding parts is going to be very difficult unless someone has a complete junker....which I think the last person who did.....was sinister....but that was a while ago.......

Either way.....congrats.

John you may have to clean it up more carefully and like Ramon said you may also have to re-solder the area that was affected.

Did you use a toothbrush that might help to clean her up better.

Oh and congrats dude you are now part of the M-90 fraternal.

now that someone mentioned it, those solder connections do not look the same as the rest of the ones on the board, at least from what I can see in the picture, they look sloppy, might be the problem if there is a cold solder joint somewhere.

John I noticed the right side tweeter dust cap pushed in. No biggie I believe the Fuzz posted a site where you can buy dust caps.

quote:

Originally posted by ford93:
John I noticed the right side tweeter dust cap pushed in. No biggie I believe the Fuzz posted a site where you can buy dust caps.

Yea, there are two small little indentations on the right dustcap. The speaker grill is pushed in just a bit, too... You can't really tell from the pics..

Re; "two small little indentations on the right dustcap" I've used double sided scotch tape to gently pull some dents out of one of my caps. Congratulations John. That M90 looks great still. I have two pairs, different sized caps. If you can't get the cap fixed up man, PM me with the size.

Thanks Fuzz! I'll keep that in mind when the time comes.

The tape deck is my first order of business...

And speaking of that, the plot thickens... I didn't notice this before but the capstan is turning! Even when listening to the radio or line-in.

Is that normal?

John I was thinking maybe a trade for an Onkyo tape deck if you want.

ed you want to trade the dustcaps for the deck?

Congratz on the purchase of the M90
She looks good. The black painted speakers are ok
One of my 90's has that done too (previous owner)It looks quite neat
I really hope you can get the tape deck fixed

Congrats on the M-90 John.
I agree with kittmaster I have the service manual in pdf
format if you need it.
LMK

If the belt(s) are broke, gone, disintegrated and the heads are in the up position, sometimes they don't even have to be up, the motor will turn with the radio on or the line in on, because the deck still thinks it is on, when you take it apart rotate the flywheel on the deck and the motor should stop running.

Hi JT-Congratulations on your very nice M90!
I hope you get your deck going-that will be so cool.
I hope to get one by the end of the year.
Have a great one-GB.

quote:

Originally posted by transamguy1977:
Congrats on the M-90 John.
I agree with kittmaster I have the service manual in pdf
format if you need it.
LMK

Arrrrggghhhh!!!! I shoulda looked at this more closely!!!!

I had dropped off the M90 at the tech yesterday and he called me today... The problem with the tape deck was the corroded fusable resistor as shown in the picture. In order to get the values for that resistor so he could replace it and continue the troubleshooting process, he had to buy a SM online for $17 (which I will now get from him on Disk or email)... I told him to go ahead and spend the $$ on that.

Well, I obviously shoulda checked this thread again and held out to get that from you, Frank! Oh well... coulda saved myself $17.

The story does have a happy ending, though... because about an hour later he called me again and told me the deck is working as it should and that it works surprisingly well. Belts appear to be in good shape and the motor is strong. FF and REW are fast and strong. That resistor (now replaced) was the only problem.

This is the same guy who repaired Juan's (ford93) Telefunken M1 and he is also very impressed with this beast of a machine! He's developing a whole new respect for boomboxes! LOL!

Anyway, I'm quite excited now.. I will have my fully WORKING M90 back next week!!!

And, if anyone needs a SM, I'll also have the full version on file to share as well.

Total repair cost comes to around $70, of which most of it was his labor and the SM. The part was something like $0.40.... go figure...!

Have a boomin' weekend!

That's great news. It sounds like you have a good repair guy found in your area. It's cool that he likes boomboxes. I think that is very important in a repair person. My local repair guy is a nice, honest person - but he doesn't really like boomboxes, I can tell. He doesn't like to spend much time on them if it's not any easy fix. Anyway, I am really glad you got the m90 back working!!! It looks great, too.

Thanks! I gotta pick it up befor I can give first hand report of how it sounds playing tapes, though... Unfortunately, that won't happen until next week.

He's also got my Tandberg 9200XD reel-to-reel that needs attention... so I'm going to resist the urge to rush over there and pick it up right away (because its a 40 mile drive one-way) and pick up both units at the same time.

So, I'll have to sit here, chomping at the proverbial bit, and imagine the M90 playing tapes for the next couple of days.... But, I've heard Juan's plenty of times, so I know the tape decks in these sound pretty good. Still! I WANNA HEAR MINE!!!

Oh well, they say that patience is a virtue. So I'll excercise some virtuosity! And knowing its back to 100% sure is better than a sharp stick in the eye, for sure..! Definitely better than getting the call that "your deck is unfixable."

It was funny... when he called me back the second time the tone of his voice was actually somewhat excited, capped off by "this thing sounds great!"

Despite the cosmetic issues, that is one awesome looking piece of machinery!

Great result getting the deck sorted too..

SUPER FREAKIN' YAY!! Way to go, JT.

I'm happy for you John!

Ted is tha man I pretty sure he'll be looking more into these Boomboxes. I guess we've givin' him the fever of Boomboxes.

Excellent stuff JT! Really awesome it was an easy fix, especialy after seeing how some M90 issues come across as being a lot more complicated from what I've seen on here.

Congratulations brother!



Rock On.

Nice one John. I hope to get and M90....... someday perhaps....

ah - I'm a bit late with emailing you my M90 service manual, it seems.

However I might be able to dig out a spare M90 tweeter if you need it?

Mine M90 is a bit of a "survivor" too, bearing a few scars of having lived life a bit. I'll bet you can't wait to get it back...

quote:

Originally posted by isolator42:
ah - I'm a bit late with emailing you my M90 service manual, it seems.

However I might be able to dig out a spare M90 tweeter if you need it?

Mine M90 is a bit of a "survivor" too, bearing a few scars of having lived life a bit. I'll bet you can't wait to get it back...

Thanks Paul. I very well may take you up on that tweeter. I think it will be much easier to get large chrome caps for the woofers. ThaFuzz said he had some caps he will send me. I'll send you a PM.