Teac A-2300S

[PhilA]

This is my first foray into reel-to-reel. It came to me free (woo!) minus power cord from someone who was going to throw it away.

Good shape inside and out. Panels are straight, wood un-dented. Picture above is how it arrived home.

Took the head guard off and gave it a quick scrub with soap and water. Came up real nice.

Tape transport path a bit grubby. Cleaned with Q-Tips and a cleaning solution designed for computer tape drive read/write heads.

Unmolested inside. Not even very dusty.

First order of the day- begone horrible old NEMA plug. Welcome IEC standard! Includes safety cap and RF choke.

Awoken gently from slumber.

All the rotating pieces work! Well.. mostly. The capstan pinch roller didn't want to move. Surprise, surprise!

Not looking too bad. More to follow

--Phil

 

[dorr]

Looks to be in excellent condition. There is a thread on here you can search for on how to repair the sticky pinch roller.

 

[audiojones]

That's in beautiful shape, looks like it was "cabinet kept" all it's life. How could someone even consider throwing something like that away? Once you get 'er all dialed in she'll go another 40 years!

 

[PhilA]

I agree. Someone enjoyed this and took care of it. I did a bit of research and read up on this particular transport, found the service manual on hifiengine and got reading.

It was only really a bit dusty on top so I pulled the back off and gave it a scrub. That came up nicely, which is always pleasant.

Undid the capstan flywheel retaining plate. There were a couple P clips holding various wiring in place also.

The offending spigot. Tight tolerances and really gummed up old grease meant that working the capstan pinch mechanism whilst dripping in some solvent was futile.

Allen screws out of the flywheel and flywheel off. Retaining plate unscrewed off capstan bearing housing. Pinch roller removed, washers on both sides of roller accounted for.

Pivot arm solenoid fork removed. Tasteful pink screwdriver used after wrench on a drill-driver crosshead bit for extra torque was used to crack the screws loose. Blue multi-plug undone and wiring moved aside for access, top safety arm microswitch screw removed, bottom one loosened and microswitches rotated around out of the way, taking care not to break the plungers on the flat edge of the cam. That then provides enough access to remove the pinch roller mechanism.

Wiggle, pull, wiggle, pull, repeat. Crusty dry grease the culprit.

Cleaned up thoroughly and lubricated with moly grease on all moving surfaces.

Somebody had previously over-tightened the safety-arm microswitches and cracked the housing of the lower one. This came loose when I undid the screws. The service manual even has a cautionary note stating not to over-torque the screws.

Super glue applied carefully and left to set...


--Phil

 

[audiojones]

Nice job! In the future you can use a large soldering gun to heat the outside of the pivot joint and it will pull right apart as soon as the grease heats up. Personally I never use grease in this tight tolerance pivot joint since that's how they get jammed up in the first place. I like to use lightweight sewing machine oil or better yet synthetic oil (clock movement oil).

If the micro switch gives you any trouble it's a commonly available part from any electronics supply house.

Great lookin machine and super nice job, enjoy!

 

[PhilA]

I look at it this way, it's something that moves with high frequency and is in proximity to parts I don't want oil on.. it was only an evening's work to pull apart and fix. Thankfully working it to and fro freed it up enough to get a finger behind the lever and work it out and off the shaft. I have some nice oil with good cling properties designed for tape drive mechanisms also. That's gone onto the sintered bronze bearing surfaces. Suggestions as to the correct oil for the motors? I see the little tubes, I was thinking gun oil?

Reassembled it and tested operation. All seems to be working correctly as far as I can tell. Need to check I put the capstan belt on the correct pulley though. It might be on the 50Hz side. Ordered some tapes off eBay just to try it out. Those should be in next week some time.

Set about thoroughly cleaning the heads and giving an inspection.

They're showing signs of many hours of use.. but not half as bad as some I've seen. Wear is even and central. Next up will be to give it a play and see how it does. I'm looking at the schematics and the circuit diagrams to see which e-caps are in the signal path and which are just power smoothing. I'll probably just make myself a list and bulk order new electrolytics for the entire thing. It's overdue. I'll probably pull the front fascia off and get some Deoxit on the switches for good measure until I can pull the boards and do them properly. A couple of them feel a bit more stiff than they should.

--Phil

 

[TR6man98]

Phil,
You did a great job refurbishing your TEAC. It looks rally good and it's a great find. Congrats!
As for motor oil: I use fully synthetic Mobil 1 with good results. The best is to use a suringe and drip it into the tubes.

Good luck.

 

[PhilA]

Thanks for that, I think I might have some fully synth on a shelf.. used to use it on a previous vehicle.

There's a fair bit to go yet- the wooden sides are coming off, will get a thorough clean with oil soap and then Tung oiled and left to dry. Front panel is suffering from grubby fingerprint syndrome and the electronics and alignment I've still yet to touch.

Mechanically it seems ok... that's one step in the right direction at least!

--Phil

 

[PhilA]

Capstan shaft dust cap was all spidered with corrosion. It's the only aluminum part on the entire thing to show any signs of it. Tried cleaning it up by rotating the face of it against a cloth loaded with metal polish, but the trails left were too deep. Gently rubbed it down on a flat surface against some 800 grit wet-n-dry. Polished it up, it's lost the turned spirals but they'd gone with the corrosion anyway. Tidy and isn't too much out of place as there are some highly polished items near it on the tape path.

--Phil

 

[Alobar]

Nice find! I am very interested in what you are doing to your deck as I was given an A3300sx a few years ago and while everything seems to work and it plays and records I need to go through it as you are doing. These are beautiful machines capable of nice sound and it is a shame to just toss these away.

 

[darg]

Wow, good work and nearly the same time as I got mine home yesterday.
I'm also thinking about recapping a couple of parts. Do you know where in the schematic are the two multi caps? I'm not sure where they belong at the motors since somehow the colors of the wires in the manual seem to be off. Are they C6 in the drawing?! Any idea how to replace them in this location without having parts dangling down inside?

 

[eddisc]

...from someone who was going to throw it away. ?!?! idiots everywhere

There are quite a few posts WARNING against removing that front panel - mostly when trying to free-up the PR pivot. Seems it is very easy to warp & put a crease in - and not necessary !! I'm currently replacing the relay pcb on one of mine (other is actually the 4ch. 2340). I used Lubriplate 105. Have you been to tape heads.net ?

 

[PhilA]

Darg, C6 in the top right hand corner of the schematic for "Tape Transport". The two cans on mine only have the 3uF connected, and the "Hz switch" appears to be missing. It's wired for 60Hz operation only. I'd see if similarly sized capacitors are available. If not, there are smaller clamps available. Note that in Parts section 10, that there are a couple of sizes of capacitor (value-wise) for earlier and later reel motors. Check your serial number.

Eddisc, Not the entire panel, just the black fascia at the bottom. I need to get the VU meters out at some point because the orange paint on the needles has flaked off and it's getting inside the mechanisms.

I've not been to that website, no. I've been trying to absorb all the information on AK first.


--Phil

 

[PhilA]

Had a bit of time today and the weather isn't too bad. Took the wooden side panels off the deck.

Big old cast alloy framework. Certainly feels solid.

Prepped to clean the wood up.

All wiped down, rinsed off and dried.

Prep for surface treatment.

Image upside-down but set about applying the oil. Outside. Because stinky.

All soaking in, oiled up.

After a while, whilst the oil is still tacky, buffed down with a cloth to provide a uniform finish. Need to wait a little longer now, brought the pieces indoors, then buff again and then just leave it to harden. Then a final buff should bring it up looking real nice.

--Phil

 

[Alobar]

That's going to be nice!

 

[PhilA]

Looks nice, gave the front a clean up (lost count of the Q-Tips used to get into crevices) and reassembled the side panels.

Tapes should be here Tuesday, so given that they aren't a wad of gooey junk, I'll give them a whirl and see if it plays.

--Phil

 

[Satcom123]

Great post PhilA. It's a beaut. Waiting on the next installment when you get the tapes.

 

[PhilA]

I was looking through the schematics today and I think I'll be upgrading the electrolytics- a lot of the smoothing caps are rated 25V, running across a 24V supply.. just a bit of drift on that supply and the insides have the chance to become so much fireworks display.

Modern electrolytics are a lot smaller, so fitting higher voltage rated e-caps shouldn't be an issue. The boards aren't densely packed by any means.

--Phil

 

[darg]

I saw that also. I did today the power supply and voltage regulator caps with new, higher voltage rated caps. I also got a bag full of various caps for the signal and bypass caps but that will be another day. One step at a time

 

[PhilA]

Tape came in. Considering this was recorded by someone else, it plays real nice. Right/left separation is great, frequency response is good. Should improve with recapping.

--Phil