Philips 970

[ORAWA01]

Hi All

Recently acquired an early 1970s Philips 970 in great cosmetic condition. It sounds quite good.

The tuner part is amazing - it receives hundreds of DX stations on MW and quite a few continental stations on LW at night that I never heard before from other radios.

On FM, it even gets full stereo high quality receptions from 3 or 4 stations without even any antenna.

All works apart from the tape player. It looks it needs new belts - where could I get them?

cheers.

['LIVEWIRE?']

The original belts will long have been obsolete, but firms such as CPC, Cricklewood Electronics, CHS(Charles Hyde), etc., stock a wide range of belts from which suitable
types can be selected. Use ones slightly smaller in diameter than the originals, which, if
they haven't turned to sticky 'goo', will certainly have stretched. If I knew what type(Square cross-section or flat, and what diameters were used, I could probably
find you some.
On a side note, that must be a good tuner if it receives stations in stereo without an
aerial!!

[ORAWA01]

Thank you LIVEWIRE. I will open it one day, and try to find out, as there seems no much info about this Model 970 on anywhere so far. The FM tuner seems super sensitive, as other tuners in my house cannot even dream of hearing one station without outdoor FM antenna. My area is FM dead spot, and yet this 970 pulls stations without anything attached to the ariel socket at the back. I was quite surprised.

[michamoo]

That's the style Philips were using around 1978 if that helps with looking for any information on this..

[kockica13]

Hello, this is my first post and I come from non-english spoken country, therefore my apologies for any errors. I'll do my best.

This thread about Philips 970 is main reason why I joined in this forum. Recently I received one, along with the philips radio cassette recorder N2229AV with slide synchronizer. Well this N2229AV can be seen on youtube, and I've been able to repair it, so when I opened Philips 970, I saw that there is very similar, yet slightly simpler mechanism since it don't have the sinchronisation part, but it has the same belts as there. The larger belt I bought in Chipoteka shop, in Zagreb, but smaller I couldn't find so I used belt that was from some (I don't remember the model) telefunken VCR.

My tip for changing belts: you only have to remove bottom side of unit and two silver screws inside, on the left side of the tape mechanism then you will be able to swing the mainboard (like a door), and get the smaller belt.

@LIVEWIRE: thank you for info, both belts are square cross-section. I don't know exactly how I should measure it, but I tried to form a circle as exactly as possible and so the smaller belt is inner diameter 3.3cm, outer diameter 3.7cm, and for the larger belt inner diameter is 7.8cm, outer diameter 8.1cm.

I was looking forward to hear that great tuner part, but was disapointed, because I accidentaly broke the mechanism for switching stations on tuner (or it was borken, small rope that operates the slider is under tension. When i tried to change the station slider went slowly and then stopped, then I realised that I had broken it. My recomendation is to be gentle with band switching mechanism on tuner). Currently I'm waiting for the glue to fix it. I hope it will be worth the effort.

My guess why radio receives good is because inside is quite a bit of a wire that goes from front to part to back of the unit and serves as some sort of antenna.

I have one question for budkor22, there are loudspeakers on the pictures you uploaded, are those original loudspeakers? I don't have originals.

['LIVEWIRE?']

Just a thought regarding the model no. On the back or bottom of the unit there should be a label with the full model number(usually a combination of letters & figures) which will help
in locating service information, etc. Kockica 13, I'm a little puzzled by those belt diameters. As drive belts generally, are only ca. 1.2 or 1.5mm square, the inner and outer diameters should be almost the same. I would guess about 35 to 36mm for the smaller,
and 79 to 80mm for the larger one. Your method of measuring the diameters is usually what I do, though you can also loop a length of cord around where the belt runs, then
measure that. (P.S. your English is much better than my non-existent knowledge of Croatian!!)

[kockica13]

Thank you LIVEWIRE. Nice idea to measure with cord. I didn't notice your answer earlier and had reasembled the unit so next time I'll try that way.
Unfortunately, there is nothing except the numbers 970 and the mark of the brand philips on the unit. Circuit boards have their numbers with no aditional markings (such as motor speed, sound level etc.), and I don't have manual or something similar.
There is mark on the inside of the main body on tuner part but I think it's a part number for main plastic frame. There stands :
PO 1
3122 114 2242 5
And there is mark on the power supply transformator, but I think It's a part number for transformator:
3122 138 35342
WA 965
There has been some kind of small sticker at the back, but it's not there now.
I send some pictures of the belts and tape unit. Few hours ago it was in pieces.
Now I can proudly say that I've repaired the broken part on the tuner and It's realy been worth the trouble of repairing. Tuner receives many stations from Croatia, and some from Hungary, Slovenia and even Austria without any antenna attached. I'm just amateur so I don't have professional knowledge but I figured out by accident that inside of an tuner is some kind of adjustable mechanism for fine tuning of the signal so I managed to adjust a little and get a nice signal strength.
Some time ago I've had fm tuner from Technics SU 22 series ( I still have it but I don't use it anymore) as standalone component and it was receieving fewer stations as this tuner, and that with an outdoor antenna!
Meanwhile as I repaired the tuner of philips 970 the tape mechanism broke down. Well not quite broke down, just the sound wasn't good, so I determined that the rubber wheel that transports the tape (located beside the magnetic head) has lost elasticity.
Now I'm helpless because recently I get rid of old malfunctioning stereo equipment and now I need that rubery wheel (I don't know right terminology)
Does anybody know where could I get that thing. the rubber ring has 12mm in diameter and 7mm inner diameter (its around the plastic inner ring on little steel axle)
P.s. I have checked with my Philips N2229 AV it has the same wheel, and it's in great condition.

[MikeyPP]

Originally Posted by kockica13

and now I need that rubery wheel (I don't know right terminology)
Does anybody know where could I get that thing. the rubber ring has 12mm in diameter and 7mm inner diameter (its around the plastic inner ring on little steel axle)
P.s. I have checked with my Philips N2229 AV it has the same wheel, and it's in great condition.

When the product was made they would normally be supplied with it's plastic inner wheel and they are just called (play or ff/rewind) idler's.
Some years after the product manufacture is stopped, some suppliers would supply then without the plastic wheel and then they are called idler tyres.

But probably the most difficult to source part some years after a product stops being made.

I've completely written off many an otherwise very good cassette deck for the lack of one of these

I'm a little puzzled by those belt diameters

I was too, they sounded like very thick belts

On a video deck , they are usually 1,1.5 or 2mm crosssection belt material.

To help you estimate a more accurate diameter you can sometimes find another round everyday object to put the belt round and then estimate the belts diameter from that

[westcliff]

Don't forget that kockica13 was measuring the thickness of the belts twice. The inner belt thickness is therefore 2mm and the outer is 1.5mm. That sounds about right.

Gus.

[AlanC]

located beside the magnetic head

He might mean the pinch roller?

[westcliff]

For clarification, I should have said that the smaller belt thickness is 2mm and the larger belt thickness is 1.5mm.

Gus.

[kockica13]

Hi folks,
Sorry for misunderstanding, smaller belt thickness is 2mm, and larger is 1.5mm as westcliff has observed. I'll say that is approximately, because I measured it with ordinary meter, so it's not very accurate, and I didn't know if those are typical values.
I'm not sure what is the difference between idler's (idler tyres) and pinch roller. I tried on the web but I didn't find something suitable.
Anyway picture says more than a word so here are few of the pictures.
Pic 1: what was problem with tuner part
pic 2: original pinch roller ( idler?)
pic 3: state of original
pic 4: in the tape deck it is first wheel on the left. This is not original, I've tried to use some similar thing from car radio with cassette player, but it's smaller so it won't work. I've tried to use rubber hose mounted on the capstan shaft (I've found this word from scheme on the http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/pinch+roller) but it increases the playback speed to much. I tried to reduce playback speed in order to compensate but it's too fast even in minimum playback speed. Sorry if I'm not understandable.
Now there are two options, I can try to find a thinner hose or to find a suitable pinch roller / idler tyre.

[MikeyPP]

if it's a long cylinder , it is the pinch roller , not an idler or an idler tyre

Is it like these in this photo > http://www.kpcomponents.ca/images/Vi...%20Rollers.jpg

That's a vcr pinch roller, it's a precision ground lump of rubber on a precision bearing, if it's surface or the bearing is not perfect, it can stop a VCR in its tracks causing poor speed and picture stability and/or tape weaving and/or tape damage.

An idler or idler tyre looks like these on this page > http://www.smcelectronics.com/vcridt.htm

[dmckenna50]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to bring you back here, but I need your help! I found the same one in my attic, it belongs to my parents, but the needle on the record player is broken. I've tried looking on the player for serial codes or additional numbers but all I can get is Philips 970. All the barcodes are scraped off. But when I've been looking online for a replacement, there are no Philips 970. There's AH970, and AAT970 but I don't know which one to use. Or will either work? Any help is appreciated! Also, I'm based in Ireland, so if you know of any Irish places that might stock, do tell! Tried Peats in Parnell St in Dublin but they had no luck. I'd love to get it going again! THANKS!

[Maarten]

Isn't there anything resembling a model number sticker (no barcodes) on the back or on the bottom?

I'm guessing it will be a 22AH970/xx, AH970 will be the right reference, in that case.