Let´s fix a wreck from the pile Part#1 Yamaha KX-230

Fredrik 1977

Super Member
Hello fellow hi-fi nuts. I´m sure i´m not the only one who have collected a not so sane amount of stuff over the years.
I am starting off sort of easy with the new series :D your gonna see real wrecks later on.
Since my daughter is soon moving to her own place she wanted some good old hi-fi. So i had a look around and found the Yamaha rack a neighbor was throwing out like 10-12 years ago. I was like yeah sure man i can take it so you don´t have to drive it to the dump.
It´s a black rack with glass doors and wheels and this deck a RX-330 receiver, cdx- 420 CD player and a TT-230 LP lathe and some crappy Yamaha speakers with 8" woofers and a cone tweeter. the latter probably will end up as backup test speakers for the bench.

Don´t know anything about the stuff other than it is from the very early 90´s, And that this deck is playing tapes but it sounds super dull.

Probably dust from 1991 on top of that.
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Not much inside these! But i have to say that Yamaha decks from this era always just works.
Belt for the tape counter is gone tho, Its probably wound up on the take up spool.
Looking clean inside, I could tell it has never been opened, You could feel it on the lid screws.

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I am surprised to see flashy looking Elna caps in here!
Also look at that regulator. They designed the board to accommodate a heatsink but then decided it was too expensive to actually install it.

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Even more nice looking Elna caps!. Audio caps? They say "Duorex"

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Well in hindsight i shouldn´t have started the deck without checking inside first. it would have been a lot less cleaning.


Oh! how fun :D But be VERY careful though! on the underside of that take up spool is some very fragile pattern painted/printed for the auto-stop sensor, This material did not like alcohol, you do not want even a drop of alcohol running down on this. i had to scrape the melted belt off with a small screwdriver. and then used q-tips with very little alcohol, If soaked then you´ll get alcohol running down the underside destroying that pattern.
Very tedious work! perfect for a saturday :D

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Since its a basic deck mounting it all back together was pretty straight forward. managed to find a belt for the tape counter as well, Once back together i checked the speed.

Look at that! i didn´t touch anything and its dead on! and keep in mind that this is the factory capstan belt in here, absolutely amazing!
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Then the Azimuth, maybe not perfect but im not gonna mess with that. that´s good enough. its supposed to be a diagonal line.

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I just connected the scope to the Line Out.

Normally you´d use a 2ch scope but for some reason this 1ch scope has a external input on the back so it can do X-Y mode. super basic scope, probably from some school.
 
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Maybe some decks has special points where to check azimuth but i´ve always just connect both line out to a dual ch scope and then adjust until both signals are in phase and maximum amplitude. i use a old Philips 8kHz azimuth tape, It´s probably from the 1970´s.
 
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I can see slight skewing in the tape path on the deck, the pinch roller is driving some tapes outwards. tried cleaning it a second time but didn´t work. so i have to order a new one.

has anyone tried that miracle cure rubber renue? is it as good as everyone says? it´s not available here in Sweden so i have to order it from over seas i think.
 
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I can see slight skewing in the tape path on the deck, the pinch roller is driving some tapes outwards. tried cleaning it a second time but didn´t work. so i have to order a new one.

has anyone tried that miracle cure rubber renue? is it as good as everyone says? it´s not available here in Sweden so i have to order it from over seas i think.
I've used it to soften up the hardend ones. Works good.
 
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