Pioneer RT-909 reel to reel issue

[billuke]

Hi everyone,
I recently bought a Rt -909 from someone and it has a major problem.
It plays/records fine but when you rewind or FF the tape if you stop towards the end ( say 3/4 full), or towards the beginning it goes real slow and will stop and won't finish the whole tape.
It does this with both 7 / 10" reels.

Is this a brake tension adj or something ?

Thanks for you help !

 

[Numistrek09]

Hummm, if you nudge it along by hand will it speed up? Once stopped, will nudgeing it start it turning again, or does it stay stopped?

 

[billuke]

Hi. If I nudge it,it will turn maybe 10 - 20 rotations then stop. a few times I've tried it and it would finish rew but very slow.Most of the time it just stops.

 

[Numistrek09]

Sorry to take so long, haven't been around lately.

Hummm, what make and model tape are you using by chance?

 

[billuke]

Well it seems it is/was a tension adj.I don't have a tension gauge,but I adjusted the ff / rew pots and I got it pretty good. Now I have another problem ! When I record there is no HI END to the audio (i'm using new Maxell ud tape.The unit plays back pre recorded stuff fine,and yes the heads are spotless and demagnitized ! I guess the record head is out of align?

 

[QSilver]

If it recorded fine to begin with then you have adjusted the tension too much. I could be wrong but I believe that these reelmto reels have belt driven spools so my guess would be that all the trouble stems from perished belts as they strech with age and deteriorate.

Check the belts and if they are quite slack then you might have found your problem.

 

[Blue Shadow]

The 909 only has one belt for the capstans. The reel motors are direct drive units.

 

[Numistrek09]

No high end hey? Head might be out of whack, but don't just go and try to adjust it to see if thats the issue. It will make things much harder for you if you do. Lets try some simple stuff first.

You say the heads are spotless, thats good. Now how much wear is on those heads? Also, have you tried adjusting the bias and eq settings during recording? You might just have it on the wrong setting.

I got some suitable scales from a school supply shop that i use as tension gauges. I think you will need up to 500 grams with 5 gram resolution for most adjustment work. Then all you need is string and a empty 7" reel. The SM will show you the rest.