Won't let my Yamaha K-1020 die.....

Tom Blasing

Super Member
Does anyone know if there are decent transport idlers for the K-1020?? I took mine into the shop a few years ago and they said they fixed it but it barley lasted longer than the repair shop's warranty.

From what I've been researching it's a common problem umongst these absolutely wonderfull sounding cassette decks.

Has anyone ever called Yamaha to see if parts for these things are still being made?
 
I have a K-1000 that has transport problems - the pulses from the optical system are not good - but AFAIK the rest of the transport is OK and the electronics are 100%.

Rob
 
I checked with Yamaha re: Idler Tires and Drive Belts for my K-1020 several months ago and they were in stock!
 
Cool!!

O.k., it's been a long time since I've been under the hood of one of these things so correct me if I'm wrong. The belts are no problem, but is the idler tire what contacts the capstan by the heads? If so we used to call this the "pinch roller".

My whole machine just doesn't have the umpf it used to to either play, rewind or fast forward. The motors will engage for a few seconds and just shuts off. Does this point to the belts needing replacement?
 
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That is the same symptom as my second K-1000. On the backside of the reel hubs there is an alternating black and white pattern. There are two plastic "light pipes" that connect from the back of the reel hubs to a pair of optical sensors on the transport circuit board. These sensors can fail or the black and white pattern gets screwed up somehow. Yamaha still sells the sensors or equivalent (I changed mine) but replacing them does not always work as I have found. On my good K-1000 you can see a nice clean waveform from the sensors, on the bad K-1000 the waveform is distorted. It is a shame because the electronics are fine and the case is clean. Makes a great paperweight. :sigh:

Rob
 
O.k. I found the idler tire. You take off the backing plate (two screws on the upper right and left of the plate) behind the cassette in the tape well and it pivotes like a pendulum between the two spindles. I took a Q-Tip and a bottle of 91% alchohol and cleaned out all the residue of old rubber embedded in the spindles' and idler drive gear's teeth. Put it all back together and, so far, it's working alot better.

Now I just have to open it up again and put Rubber Conditioner on the tire. :banana:

When I get back to working again I guess I'll order another tire and a set of belts as spares.
 
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