Teac X2000R, non-worker – what to check?

[MeerKat]

I have been offered one of these for £1000, it's a non-worker at the moment, see abbreviated seller description below.

Used but in excellent cosmetic condition, few wear and tear marks on counter surround and case. Replaced capstan motor and belt and stripped and cleaned reel motors, stripped and freed off/lubricated pinch roller arms. Replaced belt as the old one had broken and capstan motor as sound fluctuated, when I stripped motor found 2 of the 8 winding connections were broken. Tested and play, fast forward worked fine but rewind wouldn’t work, you could trick it to rewind if you put slight pressure on the tension arms so definitely a tension problem, Reel motors did work fine when tension arm manipulated. While I was trying to adjust tension all motors stopped working. Have been told that by putting pressure on tension arms this can cause a transistor or 2 to get hot and burn out. At this point I am out of my depth and don’t know how to repair this. Would need a repair from a professional service to sort electrical fault and adjust tape tension etc to get the best out of this machine and get rewind working properly, I don’t have the equipment or knowledge to set this up, Need a Tentelometer to set up tension and electrical circuit board proficiency to repair. Has been stored and not used for a few years, Have carried out the repairs listed above within the last month to get ready to sell.


Now I will able to examine the machine and will insist on removing it from it's case for inspection before I part with shekels.

So my friends what should I be looking for?

I have done some research, I will be checking the heads for wear and wear pattern, this should be minimal. I will inspect for storage induced problems and anything else visual.

Tentelometer – is there a way to rig a tension gauge to use instead of this?

Your thoughts will be most welcome.

[Ted Kendall]

At £1000, frankly I'd walk away.

If you insist, you could do worse than check the optos for the tension arms. The originals are made of the purest unobtainium and modern near-equivalents have apertures which are too narrow for the system to work properly, causing violent oscillations of the tension arms. This can be fixed by widening the aperture on the sensor side moulding.

[MeerKat]

Thanks for your advice Ted, I haven't seen that mentioned yet.

Your comment about price is also food for thought.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Yep, a grand for a non working one is very steep but if you go to look at it, look at the quality of work done so far, look for the usual sign's of bad workmanship, blobby solder joints, hacked about/missing screws, etc. The fact that the owner has stripped the motor/s, and isn't presumeably a motor specialist rings a sack load of alarm bells. If the motor is kaput you can add a shed load of money for a rewind.

£100 for parts is about the most I'd pay. Andy.

[MeerKat]

Thanks for your advice Diabolical Artificer, I must admit I was concerned it had attention from somebody of unknown abilities.

I'm going to kick this one into touch, you guys may have saved me from an expensive mistake!

[Ted Kendall]

Yes, I think that's wise.

[Radio Wrangler]

Assuming you had bought it and fixed it? Was there a definite purpose?

David

[ben]

As above posters have said, I would give this a wide berth. I repaired one about 18 months back. I was lucky as the one I worked on was almost mint, just needed a new belt and the frozen pinch roller mech freeing up. The tension arms on these are indeed a very complicated matter.

On your prospective buy, the sheer amount of areas that have received 'attention' is worrying. Broken motor connections, messed up tension, logic problem...That's a machine that's either seen a lot of use or has been abused. Neither scenario bodes well in itself, but then to cap it all, the seller has had a dabble and given up halfway through! (possibly after making things ten times worse).

Do yourself a favour, steer clear unless you want to inherit someone else's problem. And at that price?!! Repair in this case is likely an expensive mess which would add to the already excessive price tag.

Sorry if that sounds like a lecture by the way! Off to vent my spleen elsewhere now ;-)

[MeerKat]

Good evening Ben,

Bad day? - see my signature which is a mock-Latin aphorism, often translated as 'Don't let the bast**** grind you down'

Your comments noted but as the red mist decended me thinks you were maybe blinded to post #5.

Best regards,