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cheap idler tire replacement, bad idea?

T

tapefan

Member
I got a Nakamichi BX-100E, which i traded for a bottle of Dutch gin, so i could take out the cam motor. It now has the broken cam motor from a BX-125E in it, which I more or less got running with a missing carbon brush, but I don't expect that to last long.

This BX-100E also had the typical idler-tire issue. Ordering these from the US costs more than the deck is actually worth, so I thought, what the heck, lets get a rubber ring from the DIY store, one that you normally would use to repair a leaking water tap. So I did, I got a ring with inside diameter 9mm, outside 15mm and 1.5mm thick (25 eurocents), put it in the BX-100E, tested it (by hand) to see if it produces enough torque, and then put a cassette in there, and it works very well.

Any reason why this is not a good idea?
 
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Nope, It's a good idea. It just supplies take up torque, and fast wind functions. No impact on W&F. ....as long as it's fairly smooth.

What kind of Gin? Bols??
 
Just made some recordings on a new Maxell UR-90 cassette (noisy cassette when FF and rewinding, by the way) and it passed my "Mozart Clarinet Concerto 2nd movement" test.
 
tapefan said:
Any reason why this is not a good idea?
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It may not be a reliable repair, which in my book means it's not a good fix. I repair professionally and long-term reliability is super-important. Anyone can "get something working". Getting it to work fine for the next 10 years is often a lot more difficult.

Do this test. With no tape in the deck, hit the play button. Grab the right (spinning) reel hub. Does the reel motor pulley instantly stop when you grab the hub? If it continues to spin a bit, then your new idler is slipping (which means defective).
 
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tapetech said:
It may not be a reliable repair, which in my book means it's not a good fix. I repair professionally and long-term reliability is super-important. Anyone can "get something working". Getting it to work fine for the next 10 years is often a lot more difficult.

Do this test. With no tape in the deck, hit the play button. Grab the right (spinning) reel hub. Does the reel motor pulley instantly stop when you grab the hub? If it continues to spin a bit, then your new idler is slipping (which means defective).
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I read about this test in another post of yours, tried it on this BX-100E and it passed. It's a handy test, which I can use in the future as well to monitor the condition of the idler tire.

How do you repair idler tire issues? Do you put in a new tire, or a gear mod?
 
tapefan said:
I read about this test in another post of yours, tried it on this BX-100E and it passed. It's a handy test, which I can use in the future as well to monitor the condition of the idler tire.

How do you repair idler tire issues? Do you put in a new tire, or a gear mod?
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The gear-dive kits are long-gone, so the only option is a new idler tire. Often I need to re-surface new tires (with sandpaper) in order for them to pass the "slip test". Many vendors sell these tires. Some may be better (grip-wise) than others. I've never compared tires from different vendors.
 
Just to let everybody know: this improvised replacement already started showing issues after playing a handful of tapes. So now that it's tried and tested, we can conclude that it's not a good idea.
 
I've already fixed a nak dragon using spares from plumbing to get the idler wheel to do its job. It's noisy and reverse play sometimes fails, but for the moment it's ok... total cost : 0.75 euros for several rubber rings that did the job, plus others non used.

I was going to buy the right replacement from germany, but, I've found other circular squared rubber rings that will fit even better. I'll have to rework the ring but I hope I can do it
 
An earlier post by Tapetech gave me the idea to take the original idler tire and clean it with sandpaper. Seems to work fine for now, but 1e'll see how long that lasts.
 
I'd like to update some info on this topic, as I made my own pioneer CT-F1250 idler wheel completely from a generic part. I bought some rubber discs from those chinese mini malls that grow in every corner of Spain. About 14 different sized rings of rubber from which I took the one that had the same inner hole diameter than the original idler wheel. The shape was the same than the idler wheel but the external diameter was greater.

I put this ring (around?) a properly sized shaft, and mounted it into the drilling machine.

I used a small sand paper stone to rub the rubber ring against.

The only problem is that the thickness of the original idler is bigger, so I used another smaller rubber ring to fit into the gap left after mounting my worked idler wheel.

It works flawlessly.

I'll take pics later today.
 
I can imagine that sometimes it'll work, and sometimes it won't. It probably also depends on the quality of the rubber involved.
 
rotovator said:
I'd like to update some info on this topic, as I made my own pioneer CT-F1250 idler wheel completely from a generic part. I bought some rubber discs from those chinese mini malls that grow in every corner of Spain. About 14 different sized rings of rubber from which I took the one that had the same inner hole diameter than the original idler wheel. The shape was the same than the idler wheel but the external diameter was greater.

I put this ring (around?) a properly sized shaft, and mounted it into the drilling machine.

I used a small sand paper stone to rub the rubber ring against.

The only problem is that the thickness of the original idler is bigger, so I used another smaller rubber ring to fit into the gap left after mounting my worked idler wheel.

It works flawlessly.

I'll take pics later today.
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Hi,

You beat me to it!!! I was going to say flat rubber washers mounted on a screw with a nut and metal washers. Then put this in a dremmel that is fixed down in some sort of vice. I then used very fine emery paper around a flat metal rule. The end result was excellent. The secret I think was to take your time.

Cheers

GPS16
 
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