Nakamichi 480 No power/lamps - has correct volts

[gnexus]

I noticed on my Nakamichi 681ZX and 500 that when I was recapping the boards and cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol the board coating was sticky and also had a distinct smell that was hard to get rid of.

The 580 also has a similar smell. I don't think it's from the PCB. Smells more like transistors or resistors.

As far as the R channel, have you tried cleaning the tape heads?

Head is perfectly clean. This deck was very well maintained and hasn't had a huge amount of use.

What happens if you try to record and playback the Dolby test tone? Do the VU meters work correctly?

It's no big deal. Right now I could care less even if it records at all! It works! So I'm VERY happy!

I now have 150+ tapes to test. There's also the 580 that still needs to be fixed. Then there's an RM-580 that seems to also be broken...

Then there's a very nice CD player that needs a belt for the tray. Then there's a turntable that needs a new mat. Then there's a preamp with a badly rusted top and back panels. Then there's the power amp with a rusted top panel... it just goes on and on.

So whether the 480 has working VU lamps or if it even records really isn't important at this point.

 

[gnexus]

The right channel output is definitely quite low on the 480. You can clearly tell it's lower when using good headphones connected to an amp through the RCA jacks. But it's not as noticeable with speakers. So it's no big deal for now. The dead VU lamps would actually be much more important for me...

I found my test tone tape after digging out all my cassettes to test. That one's in good shape! It's a Nakamichi SX recorded on the 480 from a good turntable & cartridge . It has a good labeled 400 Hz tone along with all the others from 20-20k

The 480 also seems to have quite noticeable flutter when listening to the test tape. You can even see it on the meters a bit!

But you can't really notice the flutter on music. I understand these new belts can contribute to more flutter compared with original Nakamichi belts. Once everything else is done I can work more on the 480. But for now it's back to the 580... both the capacitors and the transistors arrived today.

 

[gnexus]

Odor from the 480 seems to be gone now.

So far have fully gone through playback of 5 Maxell XLII-S 90 tapes with no issues. Works great!

 

[gnexus]

Looks like I'm screwed on the VU lamps - JKL 8610
Most distributors are selling only a box of 100.

Also need 580 VU lamps and button lamps...

 

[gnexus]

Playback is very good now on the 480!
Have now played a dozen 90 min. tapes with no audio or transport issues

But it does have the following issues:
1) Needs both VU lamps.
2) Needs REC button lamp.
3) Scratchy right level potentiometer. EDIT:fixed
4) NOT RECORDING on RIGHT channel!
Line inputs are okay. Left channel works fine. But right channel has no audible output after record (it's only a 2 head deck so no actual tape output during recording...). This is with a standard test tone calibrated to the red lines next to -10dB on the VU meters. Left channel output corresponds to set record level. Right channel no output and meter wiggling at -40 dB.

Probably should start a new thread on the REC issue?