johnnyribcag
New Member
Hi there forum!
The other day I picked up a Teac A-450 for 25 bucks on craigslist. I wasn't expecting much, but under some dust it looked pretty clean in the pics. When I picked it up, the guy told me he thought a channel was out, but that other than that it worked.
Got her home and tonight I cracked her open, checked out the belts and such, did some cleaning, etc. It was remarkably clean inside and out. The belts look a little loose and wobbly (it won't rewind, but tries, so I assume it's loose belts) but I'm sure I can replace those pretty easily - seems like an easy piece of gear to work on, at least on a basic level.
So here's my problem: when I first hooked it up to test, I thought the guy just didn't know what he was talking about - both channels were coming through loud and proud and it sounded great. However, after maybe about 10 minutes of playing I noticed the left channel fading. Eventually it faded basically to nothing.
I didn't find anything particularly helpful in the service manual, but maybe I'm overlooking something.
Googling the problem I found a thread somewhere else talking about a similar issue on a similar deck, and someone suggested maybe it was the play/record switch that needed toggled a few times. I tried that, and for a second the channel came back, but then was gone again.
I let the deck completely cool off (thinking it was a temp thing), but when I fired it back up the left channel was dead.
Anyone have any advice or ever run into this problem before? I didn't see anything like specific left / right cards or circuits in the service manual like I would expect in an amp or something (I'm new to messing with tape decks). I was pretty good with electronics in the navy, but I lack a lot of tools these days, and I'm also rusty as heck. Any help would be appreciated, I'd hate to pay someone 150 bucks or something to fix it - just doesn't seem worth it but I'd like to get her up and running.
The other day I picked up a Teac A-450 for 25 bucks on craigslist. I wasn't expecting much, but under some dust it looked pretty clean in the pics. When I picked it up, the guy told me he thought a channel was out, but that other than that it worked.
Got her home and tonight I cracked her open, checked out the belts and such, did some cleaning, etc. It was remarkably clean inside and out. The belts look a little loose and wobbly (it won't rewind, but tries, so I assume it's loose belts) but I'm sure I can replace those pretty easily - seems like an easy piece of gear to work on, at least on a basic level.
So here's my problem: when I first hooked it up to test, I thought the guy just didn't know what he was talking about - both channels were coming through loud and proud and it sounded great. However, after maybe about 10 minutes of playing I noticed the left channel fading. Eventually it faded basically to nothing.
I didn't find anything particularly helpful in the service manual, but maybe I'm overlooking something.
Googling the problem I found a thread somewhere else talking about a similar issue on a similar deck, and someone suggested maybe it was the play/record switch that needed toggled a few times. I tried that, and for a second the channel came back, but then was gone again.
I let the deck completely cool off (thinking it was a temp thing), but when I fired it back up the left channel was dead.
Anyone have any advice or ever run into this problem before? I didn't see anything like specific left / right cards or circuits in the service manual like I would expect in an amp or something (I'm new to messing with tape decks). I was pretty good with electronics in the navy, but I lack a lot of tools these days, and I'm also rusty as heck. Any help would be appreciated, I'd hate to pay someone 150 bucks or something to fix it - just doesn't seem worth it but I'd like to get her up and running.
