View Single Post
Old 20th May 2017, 3:55 am   #23
ct92404
Pentode
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: San Bernardino, California, USA.
Posts: 101
Default Re: Citroen (Freeman) 550 tape recorder- bad capacitor?

camtechman, that's really interesting - that tape recorder looks pretty much identical to mine. Except of course that the circuit is wired differently, and the colors are different. But the layout is exactly the same. I wonder why that one needed so many batteries though?!

I think at this point, I've probably gone as far as I can. I couldn't find anything wrong with the wiring going to the erase head, so the problem must be the head itself. Also, I just noticed that one of the screws for the top plate is stripped and I can't get it off, so I can't get access to the inside of the front (like pic 4 in camtechman's post). I guess I could drill that screw out, but that's not something I really want to get into right now. And I don't even have a replacement head, anyway.

The tape recorder does play and record, at least. I do have several other reel-to-reel tape recorders, and I can just erase tapes on one of them if I want to re-use a tape. It would be a little annoying and a hassle, but it's not the end of the world. I can always have this one as a nice display and still play around with it. So I'm kind of thinking that at this point it might be best for me to just leave it alone. I'm afraid that if I mess with it too much, I might really screw it up and it won't work at all anymore. If I can get another erase head for it, maybe I'll try again sometime.

Thank you for all your help, everyone! At least we were able to narrow down what the likely problem is - the erase head. I definitely learned a lot from this!
ct92404 is offline