Amstrad CPC 464 Repair
- Thread starter Purity
- Start date
Clean clean clean and then clean some more, new greace, new belt(s) and even then you'll most likely need to adjust the head slightly. I've not repaired cpc tape drives but that's my experience with spectrum +2/3 drives which I am sure are very similar.
I managed to fix this. If anyone has a similar issue, the auto stop arm was jammed. This is the white plastic bit in between the tape heads. Manually moving this arm unjammed it. I then had to reflow the "sound in section" on the tape PCB to get sound out of the player and speaker.
Most likely the grease has become a sticky something during the years. If you just move the arm manually, auto stop won't work anymore or it's jammed again when the first tape reaches the end. This arm must move without any noticeable force. If not, remove the old grease with alcohol and regrease it with white plastic grease. Don't use any other grease because this will probably destroy the plastic material.
The circled areas are not the relevant points for this issue. This is where the whole head assembly mech slides on. I can't really recognize where that arm is located, it seems to me it is below the white erase head (721AC FO5J6) on the left. Do not disasseble anything on the head assembly - this would deajust the head alingment.
If you move the white finger that is responsible for the auto stop system, you see what is moving. This is the part you have to make move freely. I don't know the grease you've mentioned, but I would recommend any silicone grease or that mentioned white grease for plastic gears. So because your grease is silcone grease, I think it's OK for this purpose. If everything is metal where the grease goes on, the type of grease is not so critical. But if plastic parts are involved (e.g. bearings!), be careful. Using the wrong grease may plastic parts make to break or to become sticky when time goes by.
Very important: Make sure no part of the tape way is contaminated with grease. After doing your work, clean the heads and every part that is in contact to the tape (erase head, auto stop finger, record/play head, capstan, rubber wheel) using alcohol to make sure everything is free of grease.
If you move the white finger that is responsible for the auto stop system, you see what is moving. This is the part you have to make move freely. I don't know the grease you've mentioned, but I would recommend any silicone grease or that mentioned white grease for plastic gears. So because your grease is silcone grease, I think it's OK for this purpose. If everything is metal where the grease goes on, the type of grease is not so critical. But if plastic parts are involved (e.g. bearings!), be careful. Using the wrong grease may plastic parts make to break or to become sticky when time goes by.
Very important: Make sure no part of the tape way is contaminated with grease. After doing your work, clean the heads and every part that is in contact to the tape (erase head, auto stop finger, record/play head, capstan, rubber wheel) using alcohol to make sure everything is free of grease.