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Nakamichi 480 Cassette Deck - squeak noise

B

bf87

New Member
Hi,
I have picked up a Nakamichi 480 cassette deck.
It works very well except that it makes a squeak noise (it is a high pitch noise and its not coming through the speakers) when you press the play, stop, ff, rw or pause.
It only squeaks for a split second just as the button is pressed.
Is this to do with the belt?
What can I do to fix the problem?

Thanks.
 
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Welcome to AK!
It could be a belt slipping. There is a motor that drives the mechanism into it's various modes; play, stop, FF, RW. It drives a belt that operates a cam. The belt could be slipping. You can buy a complete belt kit for that deck on E-Bay from marrscommunications. Fred buys these kits from the factory that made the belts and idler tires for Nakamichi. They work great. You should buy the kit and install all the rubber parts for best reliability of the deck. It is a tedious process, but you don't need any special tools except a #2 Phillips screwdriver and good mechanical ability. Draw pictures or use a digital camera to help you remember where everything goes. The front panel has to come off in order to get the head wires out.
 
If it squeaks when moving tape, check to see if it has white plastic tape guides (by the pinch rollers). nakamichi changed them to a black non-squeak plastic to avoid this violin bowing phenomenon. I don't know where you can buy the black tape guides today, however.
 
It could be a bad tape but bad tapes usually squeak periodically while the tape is in PLAY and sometimes squeak permanently in FF/REW or don't squeak at all. Anyway, if it was a bad cassette then good for you.
 
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