Help! Stumped with cassette deck playback issue.

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notbillcosby
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Help! Stumped with cassette deck playback issue.

Post by notbillcosby » Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:21 am

EDIT: I've had this posted for several days with zero replies. Could someone at least tell me what some of these parts are called so I know what I should be Googling?

This is my first venture getting wrist deep in fixing a cassette deck. I'm very low on vocab words, so please bear with me! I'll get some pictures tomorrow that might help.

I got a Teac A-430 several years ago. It powered on but didn't work and I put it on the shelf for years until recently. I ordered belts and decided to try to get this thing running. I managed to replace all 3 belts:

1- Long flat belt, wraps around the base of the large disc part of the capstan, the motor, and a white plastic wheel that moves toward the take up reel's rubber "tire" when play is pressed.

2- A round belt, wraps around a thinner point on the capstan and another white plastic wheel; This wheel leans toward the supply reel or another disc/tire that pushes into the take up reel, for REW and FF respectively

3- A thin belt, wraps around a groove in the base of the take up reel and the pulley on the tape counter.

REW and FF work fine. The counter works fine.

When I press play, the pinch roller and capstan press against each other and pull the tape through as expected, but the take up reel doesn't turn. The tape wads up a little inside the cassette, and the deck stops playing, as I'd expect it to.

Once I disassembled the machine a little further, I realized the plastic wheel from "Belt 1" would shift to press it's axel against the take up wheel's tire when I'd press play. There's two problems with this:
1) because of the direction the white wheel spins, this would be causing the take up reel to turn clockwise. Which is backwards!
2) Once the play button is fully engaged, the wheel wimps out and doesn't turn the take up reel, regardless of the direction. The white plastic wheel still spins with the belt, but the tail of the axel doesn't spin. I can get it to turn the take up wheel if i only push down the play button part-way, so it doesn't fully push into the take up reel's tire.

I'm having trouble understanding what all is going on here. Why would it even be trying to turn the take up reel backwards? It's clearly the way the machine is built, but I can't understand the logic behind what it's doing. I can't figure out which element of this whole picture is screwing up the playback of my tapes. Someone help! I don't know what I'm doing, and it's very late.
Last edited by notbillcosby on Tue Oct 20, 2015 8:32 am, edited 4 times in total.

notbillcosby
gettin' sounds
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:49 pm

Post by notbillcosby » Thu Oct 15, 2015 9:32 pm

Here's pictures.

Image

Image

Image

Image

notbillcosby
gettin' sounds
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:49 pm

Post by notbillcosby » Tue Oct 27, 2015 8:29 pm

Duh, I got it. The belt was on the wrong side of "playback wheel."

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vvv
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Post by vvv » Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:49 pm

8) Congrats!

FWIW, I think that's called a "capstan wheel", which term I believe applies to a wheel whose axle moves to adjust tension or change the belt path.
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