Nak mr-1 #4 is here. Needs tire, led ladder vu meters no workee!

[jayk]

title says most of it. ups dropped it off today.
got it out of shipping box, cleaned heads, etc. tried to play a tape, no deal :tears:. but hey, waddoo i 'spect for under $29.

i took cassette well cover off, cleaned existing tire and wheels, etc. it helped a little.
recorder now plays (and sounds good), but very weak ff/rw:sigh:. i think my 'skill' level will now allow me to do a new tire.

the led meters are a different story. nada, zip, nuttin' ! (and that little light show is half the fun of an mr-1!)

any ideas for the proverbial cheap easy fix? by a layman?
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pioneer qa800a, (akai gx630dss quad x 3, akai gx230d, teac a-6300) r2rs, nakamichi mr-1 x 3/600, akai ap d210 tt, zenith cdp, small advents, nakamichi s1bs, ADS L420s

 

[jayk]

been fiddling with this thing, using light grain sandpaper to rough up the edges of the tire.

but now i've gone and done it!
whilst putting the cass. well plate back in after the fourth time i removed it to fiddle with tire, i dropped one of the little screws into the innards.
i already had the bottom (and top) cover off the recorder so i picked it up and gave it a good shake-(i'd dropped screw in before in other mr-1, but it always shook out).
screw moved around and somehow got lodged in the transport mech (i think) somewhere out of sight !
shook it several more times, nada. wouldn't come out.

so i plugged recorder back in and played a tape again. screw hasn't caused any trouble so far but i gotta find it and remove it.
guess i better not run it til i remove screw.

now it's time for a :beer:

 

[jayk]

loose screw still lodged somewhere in recorder guts but it's playing ok and sounds really good.
still no meters.
i may mess with existing tire today, see if i can improve the ff/rw.
it'll be at least a week before i can have a new tire(s) delivered.

and last but not least, bump!

 

[Strawman]

I would be more concerned about the screw floating around in there. They have been known to defy gravity and wreak havoc. It would drive me nuts knowing it was in there. Good luck with it.

 

[jayk]

I would be more concerned about the screw floating around in there. They have been known to defy gravity and wreak havoc. It would drive me nuts knowing it was in there. Good luck with it.

yeah, i agree. ran it for 15 mins and it stopped by itself.
play mode is weak also-too much stress on worn tire, i think. so i shut it off.

 

[jayk]

Found missing screw!!!

found screw under the towel i had recorder laying on.
i kind of wondered if it had fallen out of machine and i missed it/didn't see or hear it fall out. i was getting tired
yep, i missed it alright.

quite a relief!

 

[sancho22]

Hey jayk you are almost as bad with these MR-1 as I am with speakers.
Good luck with #4.

 

[jayk]

gracias!
just making up for lost time. when i first saw an mr-1 in a recording magazine back in '85 i lusted after it and have ever since.
but no way could i afford the ~$1k for one.
now that they're sort of cheap, i'm scarfing them up when i can.

 

[jayk]

here's a couple 'o pics of #4. they don't show the tire issue but everyone likes a pic.
re vu meters; on working meters the bottom led lights up when recorder is powered up. but not so on this mr-1.

 

[jan_stevns]

holy canoly - what a wiring loom

here's a couple 'o pics of #4. they don't show the tire issue but everyone likes a pic.
re vu meters, on working meters the bottom led lights up when recorder is powered up. but not on this mr-1.

based on the inside photo : i would'nt be the one to look for a broken wire inside that birds nest

 

[Strawman]

It looks like the big ribbon cables feed the meters. All fuses good? Have you tried just cleaning/reseating the connections? The look like they's multi-wire and can be a pain to line up correctly.

 

[jayk]

based on the inside photo : i would'nt be the one to look for a broken wire inside that birds nest

LOL! it does look like a birds nest, kind of.

 

[jayk]

It looks like the big ribbon cables feed the meters. All fuses good? Have you tried just cleaning/reseating the connections? The look like they's multi-wire and can be a pain to line up correctly.

yeah, the black ribbon conn. look like the ones to the meters.
haven't tried anything yet., clueless, here! but i guess i could try to unplug and replug in ribbons.
fuses looked ok.

 

[Strawman]

Pull them out of the holders and test them with a meter. I've ran into more than one fuse that was bad when it "looked OK". Yes, try reseating those cables.

 

[sancho22]

jayk I can see why are you so crazy about these decks. I pulled out mine and played it for about 2 hours. It is connected to a Kenny Supreme 500 and some Dynaco A-25 and AR 4X. I played Dave Brubeck pre-recorded tape from GW and it sounded unbelievable.
Hope you can fix #4.

 

[jayk]

jayk I can see why are you so crazy about these decks. I pulled out mine and played it for about 2 hours. It is connected to a Kenny Supreme 500 and some Dynaco A-25 and AR 4X. I played Dave Brubeck pre-recorded tape from GW and it sounded unbelievable.
Hope you can fix #4.

hi. is yours working ok now? hope so.
yeah, they do sound good!

 

[sancho22]

It did play one song perfectly, one only with one channel and then perfectly for 2 hours.
I do hope that a miracle happened and it "fixed" itself.

 

[jayk]

dunno, mebbe you just gotta use it more for a while.
good news, anyway.

 

[sancho22]

Not really. After posting thwe good news it started playing one channle again...back to square one.

 

[jayk]

:tears: