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This is a mechanism out of a PCM-R300 DAT Recorder (Sony).
It's one of the latter 3-motor mechanisms and it's been showing Caution on the display.
This mechanism is also used in the DTC-ZE700 from about 1996.
It is a good mechanism overall but it does have one or two weaknessess.
If I turn it over the reason for the Caution light displaying is because
the guides have not been completely returning to their home position when the tape unloads.
Now they are actually in the home position there because I moved them but they have
not been returning to the home position and the tape has been jamming hence the Caution message
If I turn the mechanism back over again,
it's quite easy to take apart. You don't need to take the sides off. All you need to do
is take out this little screw here; take out these two screws on the circuit board here;
take out the screw here; and those two screws there.
The screws are different. Those screws are a finer thread than those three so make sure you get them right.
This mechanism also has a thin-tape detector
which is a little plug here which you have to undo.
But when you've done all that you can flip this out and hey presto! this is the works.
Now the problem is that the tape guides are driven by this slider mechanism here.
If you look: here's me sliding it around. That pushes the tape around the drum here
and the weak points are these very fine plastic clips.
With time and with the continual back and forth movemement they crack and become loose.
These gears move slightly with the tension of the tape on them and that causes the problem.
Now these are very expensive to buy - something like 7 pounds each - which for a bit of plastic
that should cost less than a penny to make is just a joke.
So I wouldn't recommend going and buying the spare part.
If you look on the other part of the mechanism here, you'll find they are in abundance.
So the thing that I have done is I have took one off this here which is a part that doesn't
move as much (it is just part of the brake that holds the spools still) and put them
on to replace this part here. The ones that have snapped - don't throw them away
because you can use them on the brake here because it still needs some kind of clip.
If you've got a small metal circlip you can use that also but just be careful you don't
break off the plastic lug because it's very soft plastic.
(Takes circlip) I lick my finger and use the spit to hold it in place and then
flick it back onto the lug. This is the broken clip by the way which I have taken off the loading
gear as that gets more 'hammer'. Now that clip is back on the brake but it's
not tight so you want a hot melt glue gun to squirt a small dot of glue on the clip
and let it set. My glue gun is hot now so I am going to put
some glue on this as this is one of the cracked clips.
You may be asking why not just glue the loading gears here?
Well the reason is these are rotating and I wanted to make sure they are perfectly free,
whereas the brake mechanism only rotates slighty.
Now if you notice; one of these has flown off somewhere, which if you're dealing with small parts in these machines is a
frighteningly common occurence. But often the part flies into the works rather
than onto the floor. Use the spit-on-finger to pick it up and position it on the lug.
Don't use superglue on these mechanisms as it tends to run everywhere you don't want it to go
Unless you remove the part from the rest of the mechanism first