Advent 201A Restoration or Spare Parts?

[N. Jerboa]

I picked this tape deck up thinking I might try to get it working. Having opened it up and taken a closer look, I'm leaning towards just trying to find a working or semi-working 201 and keeping this for parts.

The primary fault seems to have been the power switch. Either the power cable got yanked or the tape deck fell and the cable caught it, pulling the guts out the back of the switch. It's a little annoying that the switch looks to have been riveted in place onto this power supply bracket, but I see the same model switch is still available and I should be able to drill it out and replace it.

I'm more concerned that it looks like the tape deck has sat unused for quite a while since this incident. The belts will probably all need to be replaced, the motor has a lot of play where the mounts seem to have deteriorated. The position of the board makes me think replacing any failed electrolytics is going to be a real pain, too.

At what point would you consider one of these machines too far gone?

 

[nakmandan]

This model is one of the oldest machines out there, meaning that it will be a lot of work to restore. The older the model is, usually the more difficult and time consuming to restore them. It's probably that another one would be in near the same condition. As long as you understand this, proceed. But it's very doubtful that simply changing belts or tires will be everything it needs.

 

[safebet]

Very robust deck! I use the heck out of mine and it sounds great. Dolby B tracks well in my experience.