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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 14th Jun 2019, 11:53 am   #1
dejayaGalloway
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Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Castle Douglas, Galloway, Scotland
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Default Sansui SC-3330 - No rewind or FF - No Sound

Hi folks,

First-time poster - so please feel free to keep me right!

I have a Sansui SC-3330 which I picked up recently.

It looks in fabulous condition inside & out - but it has a couple of issues.

1 - While the tape appears to play fine in PLAY mode, there doesn't seem to be anything getting sent to the audio outs or the VU meter. Even a noisy tape, volume at full, nothing registers on the outputs or the meter.

2 - While PLAY mode seems OK mechanically, FF and REW fail to move the tape at all. The little bars engage to lock the tape in place and a motor / pulley / belt kick into action at the back - but nothing happens up front.

I'm far from an expert but the belts I can see / access all feel OK to me.

I have made a short video which hopefully shows both these issues:

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Any thought or help much appreciated!
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Old 16th Jun 2019, 2:53 am   #2
julie_m
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Default Re: Sansui SC-3330 - No rewind or FF - No Sound

It looks to me as though the narrow belt visible in the pictures might have stretched and not be transmitting any motion anymore.

The auto-stop mechanism is kicking in after a second or so with no tape motion; this is correct behaviour. If you manually turn the tape counter, you should be able to get it to stay in fast wind / rewind for longer.

The lack of audio could also conceivably be caused by another worn belt not bringing the tape heads into proper contact with the tape in play mode, or not properly disengaging a muting switch. But let's fix one fault at a time .....
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Old 16th Jun 2019, 10:15 am   #3
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Sansui SC-3330 - No rewind or FF - No Sound

It looks like the wind idler is not moving into engagement. When you select either wind mode, the idler, located centrally between the two reel hubs, should rise up into contact with the rubber tyre on the end of the reel motor pulley. Depending on which way the motor runs, it kicks over to transmit the drive to one or other of the reel hubs. But it doesn't seem to be moving at all. Check it's not jammed with stiff grease, that the spring is attached and that the solenoid is working.

I think the head block is engaging as I think I can see the pressure pad move, so the lack of playback is probably an electronic fault, maybe power or mode selection related as it affect both channels.
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Old 16th Jun 2019, 12:00 pm   #4
dejayaGalloway
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Default Re: Sansui SC-3330 - No rewind or FF - No Sound

Thanks both so much for your replies. Really appreciate you taking the time to look.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes View Post
It looks like the wind idler is not moving into engagement.
You're spot on there Lucien Nunes!

I had the fascia off last night and noticed that the wind idler was not doing anything. At that point I wasn't exactly sure of what it was supposed to be doing but now you've explained it, that makes much more sense.

I'll take another look at it later and see if I can work out why it's not engaging.

Quote:
Originally Posted by julie_m View Post
The lack of audio could also conceivably be caused by another worn belt not bringing the tape heads into proper contact with the tape in play mode, or not properly disengaging a muting switch. But let's fix one fault at a time .....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes View Post
I think the head block is engaging as I think I can see the pressure pad move, so the lack of playback is probably an electronic fault, maybe power or mode selection related as it affect both channels.
The head does seem to engage fine with the tape - and I've checked the cabling between the head and the plug on the circuit board and it looks fine. Everything looks brand new.

Muting switch sounds possible - power is set to 240v mode so should be OK.

I suspect the sound issue might end up being beyond me capabilities to fix but as you say Julie, one fix at a time - I'll try to get the FF / REW sorted first.

Thanks once again - I'll update soon.
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