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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 9th Jan 2020, 9:55 am   #1
OlafUher
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Default UHER 4200 Report Stereo restoration

Hello there friends,

So, I received this UHER yesterday, from Germany.

As per seller the ad was like this:-

"UHER 4200 Report Stereo (with a large window), lights up not tested with tape".

It came with the power adaptor, so I was able to check and the lights did turn on, engaging the speeds, motor started to turn but no movement.

First thing I did was to check the belts and the smallest one was split, I replaced it and also the other belt on the other side of the motor, (as I had previously bought " sets of belts and cables to connect to my hifi system).

Now I had something spinning, but probably due to the machine having been stored for a long time it did not spin very good and the motor could not cope with RW, FF and Play.

I let it turn in idle for some time, under observation and then, closed the machine and flipped it over to let it FF and RW a little by little on all 4 speeds, careful not to strain the motor and it started to be a little bit fluent.

I hooked it up with my hifi and sound comes through on tape monitor, turning knobs did cause some scratching noises as could be expected, I have some DeoxIT DP5 to clean that later.

I did some recording only on two of the lower speeds, as the inside needs some cleaning and lubrification and the motor could not handle the last two faster speeds.

I haven't bought any oil yet as I am deciding on what would be the best choice, what do you use and is safe for reel to reel recorders ?

So over all, I do have high hopes here, will do the cleaning and lubing first, then test recording and playback on the speeds.

After that step, then I would start to look into which caps and which capacitors / transistors with new ones.

I have received another UHER Report-S (small window) and one UHER 724, still waiting for one more UHER 724 and two UHER Report-L and the other one is Report-IC.

I will be posting the process of restoration on each UHER in separate threads as advices by the moderator, which is a good advice as the machines can differ in construction and eventual issues that they "suffer" from.

That's all for now, so Happy New Year 20/20
Olaf
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Old 9th Jan 2020, 2:20 pm   #2
Uncle Bulgaria
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Default Re: UHER 4200 Report Stereo restoration

It sounds like you have your work cut out with all those arriving! Did you decide to fulfil a lifelong dream to acquire all the Uhers you can?

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Uher appreciator. I will be interested to see what you do with your Report-L as I have one of these I have dismantled entirely to repaint and renovate. However, I did it years ago and then life got in the way so even with my notes and a complete reference machine I'm not sure I'll be able to put it back together again!

Does yours have sintered bearings on the part that is not turning properly? If so, it's unlikely it's dried out. My Report-L service manual states specifically that oil for sintered bearings should be used (see attached).

I have had success re-oiling sintered bearings by using a suitable oil and soaking the bearing in it while heating on a low heat. Doing that for an hour or so (I leave it in a jar of the oil on the back of the Rayburn) seems to have worked on previous efforts.
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Old 9th Jan 2020, 4:51 pm   #3
DMcMahon
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Default Re: UHER 4200 Report Stereo restoration

Hi Olaf,
I am not the best person to advise, as I am just slowly getting up to speed on my first (well not actually mine, I am repairing it for a friend) Uher 4000 Report Monitor (Mono), although I have several Uher Royal de Luxes and numerous other makes.

As per the Service manual page that Uncle Bulgaria provided, there is not a lot of lubrication recommended on the 4000, with sintered bearings being a special case, although a tiny drop of good quality oil for very old sintered bearings in my experience does not do any harm (some people may well argue this).

For general R2R lubrication, some people may recommend exotic/special oils such as turbine oil/Liberty oil/synthetic oil (with various names) etc, also some of the better quality machines have zero oiling recommendations by the respective OEM manufacturers.

I personally consider for most run of the mill recorders, that a good quality sewing machine oil is adequate, I am presently using Singer Super oil, but whatever oil, it should only be used very sparingly.

Vitally important of course not to get any oil/grease on the drive belts and other rubber components, idler wheels, other components of the tape transport, anything in the tape path including heads etc.

For the speeds that are struggling, is the motor also struggling, if so are you happy that your power source (batteries or AC/DC adaptor) is giving good voltage to the motor when under load ? If motor not struggling then possibly mechanical issue with the interface between the flywheel drive to the Drive wheel.

I am experiencing intermittent speed problems, where some speeds will not always work, but your issue possibly sounds different to mine.

Good luck with all your Uhers, sounds like you will be kept very busy

David
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Old 12th Jan 2020, 2:11 pm   #4
OlafUher
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Default Re: UHER 4200 Report Stereo restoration

Hello again,

thank you for the posting, I worked a bit on the Uher 4200, did some cleaning and Deoxit and let it run FF and RWD looks like it is running smoother, I ordered the oil online and will do some work on it then.

I am testing the playback and recording, right now apart from some speed irregularities is seems to work so far.

here is a video I uploaded :
https://www.facebook.com/Avalonux/vi...5694845872623/

I will post something on the Uher 724, (in another thread), it needs new belts, but I got it up and running with a substitute belt and it sound just great.
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Old 13th Jan 2020, 6:51 pm   #5
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: UHER 4200 Report Stereo restoration

From my experience, the rubber components on the Report Monitor are nowhere near as long lasting as those on previous machines. Belts aren't a problem, but that drive pulley can be difficult to replicate.
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