AKAI X-150D w/Super Weak Right Channel

[JB8]

Hello!

While I know it has little value I'm still trying to resurrect this 150D, but I've run into a hitch - during playback the right channel is quite week while the left is strong and clear. Again, there is signal on the right side but it's mainly hiss and a low level of the music from the tape.

Visual inspection presented nothing remarkable. I very slightly adjusted the VR's on the preamp card with no change. All function levers are working great (replaced the crumbling cams) and rear contacts have been treated with Deoxit. If listening to a classic stereo mix, if I switch tracks via the Crossfield knob, I get a healthy thump out of both left and right channels, again, supporting the notion that the right channel still lives.

I also cleaned the playback head, which was pretty dirty, again, no change.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[eddisc]

I don't recall if your model has X-tal heads or not, but it may suffering for the dreaded fracturing on the microscopic level. Check w/ a powerful magnifying glass and strong light to see if you missed any oxide/dirt buildup. You might need acetone or such - as you say it was pretty dirty. NO cure for the fracturing except replacement.

 

[JB8]

Thank you, @eddisc, great advice regarding the deeper cleaning of the playback head and in general. I took another look and saw a few tiny remnants of shmutz caked on the head and used acetone to gently remove it. Subsequent testing revealed no change, which is a shame since the machine is functioning so nicely otherwise and the left channel sounds great. The tease is that when playing back some jazz this morning during testing I could hear a nice hi-hat sound from the right channel, that's it, so there are some high frequencies still being picked up and transmitted. Is this common or would the head typically be working or not working, nothing in between?