Restoration Akai GXC750D - warning - large pictures

Kale

Super Member
Hi, I just finished restoring my Akai GXC750D cassette deck, and I decided to share some pictures with you guys.
That Deck I bought on e-bay for 50 US$, and it had some issue with rew and ff motors. What I did during that restoration:
- first I changed all belts, here I need to tell you something, small belt which running counter is very important as main big belt, why, because counter has one part which generate signals during tape is running, by this deck “knows” that all is OK, in moment when that part of counter stops generate signals, deck immediately goes into stop mode.
- As you can see on pictures I disassembled all that I can clean and lubricate critical parts on deck mechanism.
- I have changed ALL capacitors (as you can see with lot of Nichicon MUSE and Elna capacitors)
- I have changed four transistors
- I have changed critical resistors with metal-film resistors (to reduce noise)
- I restored two pinch-rollers at http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/
- Adjusted by original Service Manual (and by three original test-tapes)

And now it will be great partner to my Sansui G8000 when Sansui will be finished!

Regards!

Kale

beginning
Akai750_smal.jpg


main board before
main_board_before.jpg


main board after
inside_new_GXC750D.jpg


power supply before
Pwr_sply_before.jpg


power supply after
Nichicon_GXC750.jpg


main DC motor
Main_DC_Motor.jpg


cleaning mechanism
PICT0070_Akai_small.jpg


restored rollers
rollers.jpg


REC PB Heads
PICT0063_Akai_small.jpg


PICT0064_Akai_small.jpg


what is changed
GXC750D_changed.jpg


Final at night
Front_Final.jpg


Final
Front_Final_.jpg
 
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wow! i'm impressed...i have a great old gxc-730d that is in good working condition, but man, this thing is awesome.
 
Very impressive work Z! I hope it will last for ever.

Looks like you completely rebuilt this piece and it looks gorgeous.

Gary
 
Thanks guys

Yes, I did that job as best I can.
Every switch and trimmer was cleaned by European Deoxid called Kontakt60 (for deoxidate), KontaktWL (for cleaning) and finally with Kontact61 for protection switches against oxidation. Trimmers which are so important, I replaced with Bourns trimmers.
If you see small red pieces on the main board, those parts are WIMA MKS capacitors, I replaced all electrolytic capacitors below 1uF with those WIMA capacitors. Every solder point was resolder again with no Pb solder-wire.
And so on....
Why I decided to go in that kind of restoration, because that deck was as new when I got it. Original box, original packing material, original and mint user manual, and what to say about condition of deck, like a new, really!! Without any mark!

Regards!

Kale
 
Wow! Great work,great pics! Now I know what the inside of mine looks like w/o taking off the case. I think that is the only thing I own that I never had to really work on. I did oil it once;Thats it. I have recapped tube gear but all those caps ...... if it works,I leave it. You get the award for true Akai dedication. My hat is off to you! Thanks for the belt tip. Curt
 
ellconi said:
Wow! Great work,great pics! Now I know what the inside of mine looks like w/o taking off the case. I think that is the only thing I own that I never had to really work on. I did oil it once;Thats it. I have recapped tube gear but all those caps ...... if it works,I leave it. You get the award for true Akai dedication. My hat is off to you! Thanks for the belt tip. Curt
Thanks ellconi! About capacitors, electrolytic capacitors are specific capacitors which, during the time, change capacitance. After 20 years, those electrolytic capacitors aren't the same as they were a new. Things are worst on small value capacitors than large. This deck will work nice with old capacitors too, but with bigger hiss (noise) and with no so good frequency response and bigger distortion . Next problem is how to oil it without take apart this mechanism. You must be careful with oil, because if you put it so much, then oil might come in place where it can make a fault. I didn't take a picture from two other specific electronic board in this deck, but if you interested for this I can do this.

Fisherdude said:
What beautiful work! You are a true craftsman.
How long did it take you to complete it?
I cant tell you how long I was working on it, because I worked when I have got a free time. Sometime, I didn't work on it for all week. But I spent big time on that work, more important is, what I didn't damage anything during that restoration. Replacing that amount of electronic components on 25 years old board, is not easy work. You must have very good solder pump and very good soldering iron and so much patience.

Regards!

Kale
 
approse said:
Kale,
Just curious but how expensive was it to have the pinch rollers done? Thanks
Approse, from Terrys rubber site: "Most rollers and idlers for "Home Units" because they are smaller in size are $35.00 each, plus a $5.00 shipping and handling". so because GXC750 has two rollers-70 US$ plus shipping to Croatia. But if you wish to have excellent wow and flutter, you must do this. As comparation: I paid for Akai 50US$ and for restore pinch-rollers 70 US$.

Regards!

Kale
 
That's a beautiful restoration job, and some fantastic photos too. Kudos! That's a lot of love and care put into a great machine.
 
Scorpion8 said:
That's a beautiful restoration job, and some fantastic photos too. Kudos! That's a lot of love and care put into a great machine.
As I love so much Sansui G receivers, I love Akai GXC deck series. I have original service manuals for that GXC750 and 760 Akai deck.
You cannot charge that work, I only wish to get that deck another 25 years of life.:music:
Regards!
 
that is simply a beautiful deck. YOu've done an excellent job bringing it back to life.

out of curiosity, what did you use to clean the circuit boards so well? I've got plenty of units I would like to de-gunk.
 
jpdylon said:
that is simply a beautiful deck. YOu've done an excellent job bringing it back to life.

out of curiosity, what did you use to clean the circuit boards so well? I've got plenty of units I would like to de-gunk.
First, I have used vacuum cleaner with small brush on the end of it.
It is not good to use use the compressed air and blow out dust, because, by doing this, you will put the dust in places where it will never enter in normal conditions (like switches).
After that, I am using one clean soft brush on which I put some Kontakt_WL which is primary for contact cleaning. As you can see on that page, Kontakt60 is something like you have Deoxid, but that KontaktWL is for removing grease on contacts, and it cleans board very well too!
Regards!

Kale
 
Kale, I can't PM you - your inbox is full!

Kale,

I PM'd you recently about replacing belts on this unit (I own one, too).

You said you could email me a page from the manual so I can figure out how to get at the old belts.

Unfortunately, your inbox is full. Can you please send me the page?

Thanks!
 
Kale,

I PM'd you recently about replacing belts on this unit (I own one, too).

You said you could email me a page from the manual so I can figure out how to get at the old belts.

Unfortunately, your inbox is full. Can you please send me the page?

Thanks!

Hi Rustycat, sorry for late answer, but those days I am very busy, and as I told you before, in Service Manual there is no procedure how to change belts, only pictures with mechanical parts, so here I will show you what can be interesting for you:
13.6.2008%2015-22-28_0021.jpg

and
13.6.2008%2015-23-56_0022.jpg


I hope that will help you. Again I must tell you, if you dont have experiences, during dismounting some of part of that fantastic deck, take photos of every phase, so on that you can check later how it was before.

Regards!
 
One more thing; as you probably see, you should unscrew screws no.32 on first picture, and do not take nuts no.45.
Regards!
 
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