Elizabethan Popular 200

[rje91717]

Hi I am very new to Reel to Reel machines. I have just been given an Elizabethan Popular 200 from my grandparents, however am struggling to get it to work. I have opened it up and looked at it but I can't work out where to start, here is a list of issues that I can see:

- motor spinning fast as if stuck in fast forward only does one direction
- speaker seem to work but crackles no sound from tapes
- mechanical parts seem not to be in correct place not sure where they go
- belts seem worn but not sure where to get replacements and how

Any help on this would be much appreciated as I want to get this working so my grandparents can hear the tapes they recorded and haven't heard for over 50 years.

I can provide photographs but would need to know what you would like to see.

Thank you

Reece

[Lucien Nunes]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Open-reel tape is fun but there are quite a few possible problems to sort out before you get the results you want. We can guide you through them but a certain amount of fettling and repair may be needed both mechanical and electronic, even if the machine has had little use, simply due to deterioration through age. You may need to replace various electronic components, such as coupling capacitors, before it works properly. If they are faulty, operating the machine more than briefly without changing them can cause further damage, for example to the output valve and transformer which are much more expensive to replace.

If the tape is running through the machine at what looks like fast wind speed, when it should be playing, the pinch roller is not gripping it against the capstan. Either it is not taking the right path past the heads and capstan (and hence possibly also not being replayed) or the pinch roller and head pressure pad are not engaging, which may also be why you hear no sound.

Crackle from the speaker suggests the valves are receiving HT and heater power. Once you have the tape running through against the heads correctly, if there is still no playback you can test for an audio path through the replay amp by touching the record/play head terminals with a finger in playback mode, which should give you a loudish buzz. The circuit is simple but there are mutliple switches and contacts in the signal path that can stop signal getting through if they are damaged or dirty.

Is this the machine that recorded the tapes you want to play? Note that there are multiple track formats used by different machines and whilst you will normally get some sound from a tape whatever machine you play it on, it might not be correct.

It's helpful to know what resources and experience you have so that we can give useful guidance. For example, do you have a soldering iron and a multimeter, and any experience using them?

For starters, you might like to post pics of the tape deck itself with the cover off, a view of the heads and capstan, a general view of the electronics, and anything else you think is out of whack.

[llama]

Just done a quick Internet search and this appears to use the venerable BSR TD2 deck. I think the only drive belt is for the digit counter so shouldn't stop it working. Other linkages between the motor and flywheel / take-up hub / rewind hub are via rubber faced pulley/s. If the joystick control on the right is stuck I would suspect gummed-up grease.
If you can identify the audio output valve, try to see if there is a capacitor onto g1 of the pentode section (valve pins count clockwise, viewed from underneath). Well worth changing that capacitor - likely value somewhere between 0.01 and 0.1 uF.
In any case, we're here to help.
Graham

[ben]

See this recent thread: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/....php?p=1131278

I'm not on Wirral right now, otherwise I'd be prepared to take a look.