Marantz Superscope CD-330 noisy autostop help- please

[Mistral13]

Continuing the theme of re-living my ill-gotten youth, I bought one of the above portable cassette players as a 'spares or repair' project.

I have replaced all four drive belts, realigned the record/replay head so that it vaguely lines up where it should and re-attached the motor speed control wire which was waving in the breeze.

However, my CD-330 (3 head version of the CD-320) has one remaining issue - that of a very noisy auto-stop mechanism. When the end of the tape is reached there is a squealing noise until the auto-stop mechanism shuts off the machine.

I'm hoping that there is a fellow owner who can confirm or deny that this is normal - there is no guidance in the service manual - or whether the whether the FF/REW or PLAY clutch torque is set too high.

As usual, any help or sugestions would be gratefully recieved.

David B

[Vintage Engr]

I've had one of these from new, a really good machine.
I re-built it a few years ago, as the belts were well past their life expectancy.

Mine is a bit 'clonky' when it auto-stops, but it was always like that from new.
It generally doesn't squeal, so maybe you do have a slight problem.

David.

[Mistral13]

The cosmetic condition of this one is surprising and it is difficult to believe that it is over 40 years old. As you say the autostop always did have a resounding 'clunk' to it and this one behaves fine in Play, Fast Forward and Cue modes.

On further investigation, the issue lies with the LH supply spool when it is powered. I have tried adjusting the idler torque setting but that doesn't seem to make much difference. I am a little reluctant to dismantle the deck mechansim, but that seems to be the only way of getting at the LH spool assembly.

Thanks for the confirmation regarding the lack of squeal, I suppose I'll either have to live with it or get dismantling again! Oh, and thanks for responding to my post,

David B

[Mistral13]

In case it is of use to others:

The 'Squealing autostop' problem was traced to the idler wheel which drives the RH supply spool. The spring had weakened with time and was not providing sufficient pressure to hold the idler against the spool drive when the end of the tape was reached.

The solution was to fabricate a new spring from 1.5mm thick stiff wire using 3 turns instead of the original 4, due to lack of space.

Problem solved, Rewind/Review now working fine - and without the squealing!

[ben]

Great to see you got it fixed! I have a slightly later one, a PMD201.

Now you can relive your mis-spent youth with your ill-gotten gains!

[Mistral13]

I suppose the 330 must have been new when I first came across them in the late 70's. I bought two for the Uni radio station so that we could do some OB work rather than be tied to the studios all the time.

As you probably know they are a 3 head design and that helped a lot with people getting the levels right - the record and replay heads are together in one unit so there is negligible time delay when you are monitoring a live recording.

I went for Dolby & stereo as there was an outside chance that we could use FM, rather than the medium wave allocation which was co-channel with R Caroline at the time!

Regards,

David B

[Superscope]

Thanks for the update on the the problem you had with the 330.

I have not come across this problem myself, but I will for sure
make a note of it.

I bought my 330 New in around 1980.
It was still going stong until last year when the Audio packed up,
so it is now sitting in the "To Do" pile. Replaced by a 320 for the time being.

They are a very nice Machines (in my opinion).

The main issues I have found with the CD Series , is the Plastic piece
trends to break with age for the Record Functions.
I started fabricating replacement pieces out of Hard Plastic, which so far
been very sucessful due to most the Decks I have suffering from this problem.
Nearly all the CD series Tape Recorders suffer from this.
That White Plastic doesn't age well!

I have a few of these machines, so no guesses where my Forum Name came from.

Pity they never had a Metal Tape position.


Ian

[David001]

Sometimes you can get PMD-201 and -221 mono decks off eBay quite cheaply. I got mine there* and they just needed new belts. Great machines, as is my PMD-430

* USA, postage to the UK isn't too bad, luckily