[Stevie342000]

I acquired a Brenell STB-1 (unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective it was not the 10 1/2" spool version). It is in reasonable condition it is complete (including old round 2 pin plug).

Currently no idea if it works, upon opening it up there was a surprise (the head cover, plus 3 2uF 600v DC Aerovox capcitors (wedged in with newspaper - Sunday Times February 1968 it could have been 1988). Plus a couple of bags of bits all sealed up in envelopes in plastic bags - one bag was a Safeway bag which would figure with the date of the amplifier that I got with this lot in auction - the Brenell was listed at an auction house with a Technics SU-V3 which also has a 2 pin round plug on it.

Inside the other bag in the Brenell was the papst motor complete, with all fixings and screws. I had initially wondered why someone had put black masking tape around the capstan. All was revealed when I opened it up as the first thing I noticed was that it had a Ferrograph capstan motor in it (not sure what other mods have been made to the tape drive system).

The other modification apart from the capacitors which are not connected to the capstan motor as far as I can see that had no motor run capacitor - this might account for the tape on the capstan as it is probably slightly off speed or synchronizing to mains frequency.

Everything else is there including a mains light bulb with has a green wirewound resistor just sort of sitting on the mains cable - I assume the person did this as a temporary modification to replace the green resistor - which is there to drop the volts at 15 ips to stop tape snatch.

My queries are what should I do with it in regard to the mods? There is no way to tell if the papst motor has been repaired (I know they can go open circuit as can the Bogen Heads - there was a card in the motor pack for a business who dealt with motor repairs).

It all looks very neat and well made, with each valve section on its own little pcb - I can see what looks like black hunts capacitors in there and I know they need to go along with any electrolytics.

I could set up a light bulb limiter to put in circuit to test both the amplifier and the tape deck (although the light bulb in there may do the same thing - but I think that needs to go and to be replaced with the correct resistor? Plus I can take out the EZ80 in the PSU to test it section by section.

As for the motor is it possible to take another motor papst or AEI out of another Brenell Mk5 and put it in to replace the possibly dud papst and the Ferrrograph capstan motor.

I found the schematic for the Brenell STB-1 on line a week or so back when I bought the item. Oh right how much did I pay for the two items £70 plus costs total of £85.12 plus £9 more than that in total for P & P about £170 all told which is less than you would pay for the Brenell alone on eBay.

See attached photos and schematic I await your advice(s). The only other issues is that I missing the locking nut on the Bias Pot as it is loose - now I know what the piece of paper was for but wedged under another knob to the the left.