GoingVintage
New Member
Everyone on this forum have been very helpful so far, so I guess it is time to ask more questions.
Sorry, this is going to be a fairly long post. I want to describe everything that is going on.
I bought another "in need of repair" vintage audio unit. This time it is a Pioneer CT-F9191 to go with my SX-950 receiver.
Upon testing the cassette deck, I found someone has been inside this unit and replaced the Dolby lamp (held together with electrical tape, bulb is dead), and the right meter lamp with a green lamp.
The tape counter didn't work when I got it and found that the belt had been pulled off of the pulleys. Once I put the belt back on, the unit wouldn't do anything. For the remainder of testing, I removed the belt.
The FF and REW functions do not work. Initially, I thought that the belts were the issue but later found MTF's thread and realized that the belts have nothing to do with FF and REW functions. I have not taken apart the transport yet but suspect a bad clutch. Is MarkTheFixer still repairing these?
During playback, I get all kinds of problems and they are NOT consistent. Usually when I put a tape in, both meters will rise with an increase with the output knob but will not "dance to the music". The needles stay at whatever they are when I stop moving the output knob. When this happens, I get no sound.
Sometimes when I push the other function buttons, the needles will kind of vibrate with some sound to go with it (but still no sound from tape). It is inconsistent and I cannot figure out if a particular switch is the cause. All of the switches seem to change the problem from time to time.
On a rare occasion, I can get sound from the tape on the left channel and the left meter works as it should. The right meter will just stay about the 0dB mark and I get white noise from that channel.
I have not tested the Record function yet.
I have cleaned the heads, capstan, and pinch rollers.
I have NOT cleaned the switches yet.
At this time, I plan to clean the switches, check the FF/REW clutch and order new belts and then see what problems still exist. Does this sound like good first steps?
Any thoughts to these problems? Can the switches really be dirty enough to cause these problems? I cannot find any particular switch and the switches won't always cause a change even if I wiggle them.
I also found two wires near the top of the transport that don't go anywhere. Are these wires supposed to connect to something? I would think so or otherwise they wouldn't be there, right?
Here are the wires in question:
The colored boxes show where the wires lead to. I would have taken a wider shot but I couldn't see the wires very well.
This is where the meters stay once I press play most of the time (they don't move). Original Pioneer meter bulb on the left, someones green bulb fix on the right. I have not seen the peak lamp light up even when the meters are in the "red zone" (however, sound output is low when there is sound).
Thanks for trying to make sense of these problems!
Sorry, this is going to be a fairly long post. I want to describe everything that is going on.
I bought another "in need of repair" vintage audio unit. This time it is a Pioneer CT-F9191 to go with my SX-950 receiver.
Upon testing the cassette deck, I found someone has been inside this unit and replaced the Dolby lamp (held together with electrical tape, bulb is dead), and the right meter lamp with a green lamp.
The tape counter didn't work when I got it and found that the belt had been pulled off of the pulleys. Once I put the belt back on, the unit wouldn't do anything. For the remainder of testing, I removed the belt.
The FF and REW functions do not work. Initially, I thought that the belts were the issue but later found MTF's thread and realized that the belts have nothing to do with FF and REW functions. I have not taken apart the transport yet but suspect a bad clutch. Is MarkTheFixer still repairing these?
During playback, I get all kinds of problems and they are NOT consistent. Usually when I put a tape in, both meters will rise with an increase with the output knob but will not "dance to the music". The needles stay at whatever they are when I stop moving the output knob. When this happens, I get no sound.
Sometimes when I push the other function buttons, the needles will kind of vibrate with some sound to go with it (but still no sound from tape). It is inconsistent and I cannot figure out if a particular switch is the cause. All of the switches seem to change the problem from time to time.
On a rare occasion, I can get sound from the tape on the left channel and the left meter works as it should. The right meter will just stay about the 0dB mark and I get white noise from that channel.
I have not tested the Record function yet.
I have cleaned the heads, capstan, and pinch rollers.
I have NOT cleaned the switches yet.
At this time, I plan to clean the switches, check the FF/REW clutch and order new belts and then see what problems still exist. Does this sound like good first steps?
Any thoughts to these problems? Can the switches really be dirty enough to cause these problems? I cannot find any particular switch and the switches won't always cause a change even if I wiggle them.
I also found two wires near the top of the transport that don't go anywhere. Are these wires supposed to connect to something? I would think so or otherwise they wouldn't be there, right?
Here are the wires in question:
The colored boxes show where the wires lead to. I would have taken a wider shot but I couldn't see the wires very well.
This is where the meters stay once I press play most of the time (they don't move). Original Pioneer meter bulb on the left, someones green bulb fix on the right. I have not seen the peak lamp light up even when the meters are in the "red zone" (however, sound output is low when there is sound).
Thanks for trying to make sense of these problems!