Picked this one up a while ago and it was delivered a few days ago. Sold "As is. For parts or repair"and that's about it. Pictures looked ok except for two missing buttons:
I can work with that. It's one of the better 8 track players from "back when" so it’s worth taking a little risk. Just a bit over 300 CAD to my door, so it’s can’t hurt the bank account a lot if it can’t be brought back to life.
Superscope TDR-830 is "designed by Marantz", as listed on the rear data plate.
Marantz was owned by Superscope at the time.
First looks revealed the left channel is dead, the VU meters are frozen solid and the belts, while still there, had obviously been sitting in one spot far too long.
New belt is an easy fix. The left channel comes back with a round of deoxit on the REC switch. Pretty standard for these types of players.
Let it run for a couple programs and then it starts dragging badly. That progresses to a full lock up. I yank the cart and touch a finger to the motor case. Yep: pretty warm.
I'm thinking a full motor tear down and inspection is in order. I open the motor case and inside is one of those shrink wrapped things.
Ugh. Once you cut that off, there's no going back.
But, the rest of the rig looks to have minimal wear so I assume it's relatively low hours. which doesn't quite square with the motor locking up. So I put the motor back in the case and reinstall it in the player. The top motor bearing/bush is open/accessible so I take my precision oilier and put a tiny dot of synth bearing oil on the bearing face. It sucks the oil right up. So I give it a few more drops to get the bush good and saturated again. After that, the motor runs through a full cart twice without dragging or heating.
Then it's on to the VU meters. I end up pulling them out, taking them apart and giving the pivot screw a tiny tweak. The meters jump back to life. VU meters are so delicate it's easy to hang them up. Dust, dirt, gunk, etc. I'm willing to be this unit sat too long and a little oxide built up around the pivot and froze it in place. A micro-tweak on the pivot screw probably allowed it to break free again.
Last thing to address is a channel imbalance between left and right. I deoxit the VR's and end up with the left channel VR maxed out and the right channel VR a little above halfway to get them "even". It's within the range of the VR's to match, but it's likely a cap or two going out of spec after 45 or so years.
Date code on the motor case is 27 feb 1979, so it's at least that old. Probably more like it was built in 1980-ish as they didn't really do "just in time" supply chains back then. That makes it surprisingly close to right about the time 8 tracks disappeared, that being right around 1981/82.
So. pretty much rehabbed. Just need to fix those two missing buttons. The switches still work, it's jst the physical button attached to them that's missing.
Here's a quick vid:
Sounds pretty good, for what it is (ie: 8-Track). But it is getting a lot of help along the way to the Polk towers though. First a 12 band EQ, then into a BBE 482i "sound maximizer" and then into the Sansui 8080DB.
I can work with that. It's one of the better 8 track players from "back when" so it’s worth taking a little risk. Just a bit over 300 CAD to my door, so it’s can’t hurt the bank account a lot if it can’t be brought back to life.
Superscope TDR-830 is "designed by Marantz", as listed on the rear data plate.
Marantz was owned by Superscope at the time.
First looks revealed the left channel is dead, the VU meters are frozen solid and the belts, while still there, had obviously been sitting in one spot far too long.
New belt is an easy fix. The left channel comes back with a round of deoxit on the REC switch. Pretty standard for these types of players.
Let it run for a couple programs and then it starts dragging badly. That progresses to a full lock up. I yank the cart and touch a finger to the motor case. Yep: pretty warm.
I'm thinking a full motor tear down and inspection is in order. I open the motor case and inside is one of those shrink wrapped things.
Ugh. Once you cut that off, there's no going back.
But, the rest of the rig looks to have minimal wear so I assume it's relatively low hours. which doesn't quite square with the motor locking up. So I put the motor back in the case and reinstall it in the player. The top motor bearing/bush is open/accessible so I take my precision oilier and put a tiny dot of synth bearing oil on the bearing face. It sucks the oil right up. So I give it a few more drops to get the bush good and saturated again. After that, the motor runs through a full cart twice without dragging or heating.
Then it's on to the VU meters. I end up pulling them out, taking them apart and giving the pivot screw a tiny tweak. The meters jump back to life. VU meters are so delicate it's easy to hang them up. Dust, dirt, gunk, etc. I'm willing to be this unit sat too long and a little oxide built up around the pivot and froze it in place. A micro-tweak on the pivot screw probably allowed it to break free again.
Last thing to address is a channel imbalance between left and right. I deoxit the VR's and end up with the left channel VR maxed out and the right channel VR a little above halfway to get them "even". It's within the range of the VR's to match, but it's likely a cap or two going out of spec after 45 or so years.
Date code on the motor case is 27 feb 1979, so it's at least that old. Probably more like it was built in 1980-ish as they didn't really do "just in time" supply chains back then. That makes it surprisingly close to right about the time 8 tracks disappeared, that being right around 1981/82.
So. pretty much rehabbed. Just need to fix those two missing buttons. The switches still work, it's jst the physical button attached to them that's missing.
Here's a quick vid:
Sounds pretty good, for what it is (ie: 8-Track). But it is getting a lot of help along the way to the Polk towers though. First a 12 band EQ, then into a BBE 482i "sound maximizer" and then into the Sansui 8080DB.
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