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Fisher Studio DD-300 Cassette Deck

Mike Sweeney

Mike Sweeney

Well-Known Member
I've been refurbishing my DD300 deck and I am just about done. The overall condition was fair and it was working OK up to a few weeks ago. I ended up taking it apart and replacing the caps for the power supply filtering. I found two leaking caps there. Basic clean and lube, dioxit the pots, deoxit the cross connect connectors and a mineral oil/citrus cleaner treatment on the pinch roller. The oil/citrix is basically what the Craig RBR is when you look at the data sheet. Heads were cleaned. And now it's working nicely again. But the adventure started when I swapped out the VU meter lights with LEDs. I saw that the power supply for the lights was 15 volts.. the LED replacements ( normally used in a Marantz) drops 7.5 volts over each one which left nothing for the cassette LED. All I needed to do was use a Marantz 8 volt bidirectional LED with a 330 ohm resistor and add it in parallel instead of the OEM in series position. Presto.. LED lighting. The Marantz lights are for an 8 volt AC circuit but work fine for this application. These are the rectified LED lighting which a bit different than the cheaper LEDs. These work on both edges of the AC sine wave unlike the cheap which only work in one direction so they flicker. In this application since it's DC, that is redundant but it does make them non-polarized so I don't have to worry about which way to put them into the VU meter. I'll put up pics when it's finished tomorrow. Tonight was the first mix tape I've made on it since there repairs.. 90 mins and it recorded perfectly.
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Nice job, I just picked up the DD-300 and was planning to install LEDs on the meters but the tape's not working. Just opened her up and the flywheel on the tape transport isn't moving but the solenoids and everything else seems to be functioning properly. Can't find a service manual on any of the sites. Looks like the entire transport unit is hard wired in and not coming out too easily. Any suggestions on the flywheel not moving?
Regards,
Charlie
 
Sorry for the long delay.. I have not be nearly as active here in the past few months. When you say the solenoids are not moving, can you hear them engage or they just sit there quietly and do nothing ? My first thought is the grease has turned to sludge or worse. Can you post a picture of the unit?
 
thanks for the reply, I found the magnet seperated from the flywheel. I took it all apart, crazy glued the magnet back into the flywheel and the flywheel started turning. Weird design.
Thanks
 
Hi Mike, I have a DD 300 that I've owned since new way back... It worked okay but the ff & rew started slipping so I ordered belts thinking that was the issue not realizing the belts are only for the counter and reel movement sensor I guess. So the motor that drives the spool reels works but doesn't seem to engage enough or it is slipping on the larger wheel that it engages with to turn the forward or rewind spools. It looked really tricky if not impossible to get in there. Do you think this is fixable or should I donate it to someone who can use the parts? Thanks!
 
I picked up a Fisher DD-300 (silver face) in cosmetically beautiful condition.
All buttons seem to function. Clean as could be.
But the belts are gone. I found replacements that I can order but need to know how difficult the belt replacement job is going to be. Does anyone know if there is a guide/instructions of any type available? Can they be replaced without taking the whole motor and gear mechanisms apart?
 
Freaksmeout said:
I picked up a Fisher DD-300 (silver face) in cosmetically beautiful condition.
All buttons seem to function. Clean as could be.
But the belts are gone. I found replacements that I can order but need to know how difficult the belt replacement job is going to be. Does anyone know if there is a guide/instructions of any type available? Can they be replaced without taking the whole motor and gear mechanisms apart?
Click to expand...

What issue are you having with the unit? Does the capstan spin when powered on?
I bought the 2 belt kit thinking that would solve my problem with the ff & rew not working but I was mistaken. If it's the DD-300 Direct Drive 2 motor, I'm pretty sure the belts only serve to connect the transport to the counter which also controls the "zero" memory stop function. One motor is directly part of the capstan and should be spinning constantly when the power is on. The other motor seems to drive the forward and reverse spools based on how the cog is positioned by the solenoid against the rotating motor so not belt driven. My machine seems to not have enough of a grip between the cog and the rubber ringed spool to keep it moving and the counter (auto-stop) sees this as a stopped condidtion and releases the solenoid. I could be wrong so hoping someone else on this thread can weigh-in. Hope this helps.
 
The capstan spins when powered. All buttons function to trigger the command requested. But it goes for a few seconds and then clicks off.
 
JohnnyO.NY said:
Mine does exactly the same thing. :(
Click to expand...
Well, that sucks to hear. I'm starting to think this one is above my pay grade to be able to repair. Seeing as that it's not a really expensive deck, I was trying to avoid the $80 bench fee + parts from my stereo repair shop.
I rarely use cassettes and really only wanted it because the silver face matches my other silver l, vintage components and the meters look great on this one. I have a full set of 90s era black components for my basement/rec room system and was looking to have a full system of classier-looking silver for my living room.
 
I'm no expert but my beautiful DD-300 would play for a few minutes then stop. After removing the cover I found the belts for the counter were slipping. What I discovered, is when the counter no longer moves the solenoid clicks off as the deck assumes it has reached the end of the tape. I replaced the belts with a few I had left from my fisher MT-6360 turntable and now the deck works as it should.
 
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