Tascam 244 head stack motor

Findlay

Member
I bought another 244 from eBay - for spares really, as I need a few control knobs, but I can't resist trying to get it to work. It was in pretty bad shape - the belts and idler tyres had turned to liquid. I have two problems left really - one is that the head stack motor only turns very slowly - it takes about 5 minutes to position the head and pinch roller properly! I wonder if anyone knows how to fix this? Maybe rubber gunk has got into the motor bearings? The other problem is that I tried to clean the the pinch roller and it has become a sticky mess. I can't seem to find anyone selling these in the UK - silly question but would any cassette roller do or does it has to be this one? I think I read somewhere that other rollers might fit.
 
I seem to have fixed it! I checked the voltage at the control pot and it seemed ok - I then prised the control motor pulley off and found lots of rubber gunk underneath was seizing it. Now spinning ok!
 
Glad you found the cause of it spinning slowly Findlay. I might look at that too as I feel my 244 seems underpowered when playing. Waiting to get it to try fitting a new capstan belt but will look at that area too. Was it difficult to get the pulley off?

I found a Teac cassette deck that had an identical pinch roller, although the hub is made of plastic or nylon rather than metal. Didn't actually measure it but eyeballed the same. Only cost $5 for the Teac deck and a bit of work. I reused the original 244's centre pin.
 
Thank Evom. It was very easy to get the control motor pulley off. I managed to get a new pinch roller from ebay - listed as AV1722 - for only £2. It has a nylon centre but fit ok - after I'd filed a little off the top and bottom (only took a minute, if that). Works beautifully! Trouble is that this 244 has the same problem as yours with the capstan belt slipping off. I bought a new belt from my same supplier - have had 3 now from him and the other two were perfect with the other decks. I think it is a machine problem. The belt just rises to the top of the motor pulley all the time. I wonder if anyone knows how to fix this? Can you tap the motor pulley down a little on the shaft perhaps? Maybe not, it seems a very tight fit. Would be grateful for any help as the machine is working really well otherwise - response up to 16kHz (-3db) at 0db record.
 
Hi Findlay, awesome finding a new pinch roller, sounds like what I got off the old Teac deck.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with the capstan belt problem, although not happy hahah. I have had a replacement sent out and am getting the deck and new belt in a week or two so will find out. The USA supplier claimed he never heard of that problem.

Hope I can get mine working again. Also still have the stop button problem but can get by to just digitise the old cassettes I have.

Might look up the UK eBay site with your reference if I don't have luck with the new belt. Did you get it from the same pinch roller supplier?

Cheers!
 
I found the pinch roller with your AV1722 reference Findlay. I also see they have a few belts but everything has little info in each listing. I assume you must have contacted them, correct?

Is the 'BELT8 Flat Section Drive Belts , Replaces (Av7096)' by chance the one that fits the 244? If not, and it is that seller, could you please give the reference?

Thanks for any help! It would be great to have source if I need stuff!
 
Thanks Findlay, yeah let's hope so! Thanks heaps for the links, will check them out if the new belt is a dud again!
 
You're most welcome Evom. I can't for the life of me work out why the belt is slipping off this machine. When I put it on it seems quite happy to sit about 5 mm down from the bottom end of the flywheel and over the crown of the motor pulley. But when you power up it quickly rides up and sits half over the motor pulley flange for a while before going over the edge. Everything seems aligned - as far as you can see - and there isn't much to adjust anyway. Hope we can get it sorted - I've got this machine working beautifully otherwise, biased perfectly and even replaced the dud VU lamps with LEDs - which look super and won't burn out!
 
Hi Findlay, sounds like you're describing my experience with the belt. It seems to defy logic the way it behaves. I find when disassembled, if I put the machine on its side the belt stayed on longer. I am thinking that maybe the belt is somehow floored being cut out wrongly. Is there a 'grain' in rubber?!! Hahah I think it only needs a slight twist of some type to send it off the pulley due to the revolutions.

Will let you know the results when I can try the new belt and machine when it arrives from Australia.

Cheers!
 
I have this problem too! I think the thing to try is to buy another belt. I'm going to buy one from Marrs, which is the best place to buy belts from what I've heard. If it does the same thing after putting one of theres on then I'll know it's the machine and not a faulty type of belt.
 
Good luck with it. Please post a link to the supplier if possible.

I don't think all our machine could have the same problem! I will try mine again very soon with a replacements and post my findings ASAP.
 
Finally got to replace my main capstan belt! The good news it stays on. The new belt is the same length but noticably thinner in thickness (same width though).

The bad news is tape play back seems to have a lot of wow flutter and will slow down towards the end of a cassette and even stop. I have tried quite a few tapes and seems to suggest that the main motor has difficulty and is somehow underpowered. I have noticed that the new belt seems to vibrate a bit too as in not running particularly smoothly.

Hey Findlay, you mentioned taking a pulley off and cleaning some gunk out. Which pulley in particular? Mine seems to look clean although I did clean off the old melted belts!

Seems to be an ongoing issue getting this machine to work correctly!

My original tapes recorded on this machine definitely sound better especially with the built in DBX compared to the Fostek I picked up. Just frustrating not solving the 244's issues.

Ps got my tactile switches (stop, play etc.) all working perfectly. I took the faulty ones apart, cleaned them plus scraped the surfaces and glued back together. Had little bit of gunk in them that obviously made them intermittent or non functioning. All great now!
 
Hi Evom,

Glad the new belt stays on! I think I've managed to fix this problem with my latest 244 too - it has been working ok for a week now so fingers crossed....What I did was to spend ages cleaning and re-cleaning the drive pulley and flywheel with IPA and then, after I'd put the belt back on I didn't tighten the two screws on the capstan mounting assembly very much - finger tight if that.

I wonder if your wow and flutter is due to the flywheel bearing being too tight? Try loosening the centre screw a little - there needs to be a little bit of "slop" I've found and if it it too tight you get the effect you describe. Failing that are you sure your new pinch roller is spinning freely? I had to shave a little off my new one to get it to spin well.

The pulley I took off to clean was the one on the head stack control - it is easy to prise off and put back. This wouldn't affect the wow though I don't think.

Thanks for the post about the switches - I may need to so the same to some of mine. Keep me posted on the wow problem! Hope you fix it - whatever some people say these machines sound fantastic when they up to spec.
 
Hey Findlay, thanks for your great and helpful reply as usual!

Yeah I agree the 244 sounds great, especially with the built in DBX as with my old tapes.

I thought the same about the plate that holds the flywheel and only loosely replaced them, even doing so while playing a cassette to see if it made a difference. Plus adjusting the nylon screw to see if it made a difference. I am tempted to maybe pull the flywheel out if possible to see if can lube below it and see what it's like. I would be worried about upsetting the control mechanism cause that pot is also on that bracket.

I have also read that sometimes the old capacitors can make the motor run weakly and can be replaced but don't know much more and also which to replace.

As I did replace the pinch roller with an old but good condition one, I will look at it as you suggested. When you say spin freely, do you mean with no tape?

When I put a rewound tape in, it often, initially, plays too fast and fluctuates then after about a minute or so it settles down and eventually plays normally. Sometimes stopping and starting also helps it settle down. Then towards the end of a tape it gets slower and often stops! Could it be the pinch roller slipping(?). Even when playing normally, I can still hear the wow problem too. I have replaced the idler tyres as well.

The belt supplier says my machine is faulty and it probably has a worn bearing and needs pro lubrication. It probably has additional problems but at least now the replacement belt works now so I can move forward. He simply keeps saying, we've never had any problems before blah blah, so why does the new belt work then, I said!

Anyway stay tuned for the next exciting installment ;)

Cheers

Update; Without a cassette, when I press play, I can easily stop the pinch roller spinning with my finger. Maybe it's not contacting strongly enough? Findlay, can you please tell me what yours' is like and how much pressure it takes to stop it spinning?
 
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Hi Evom,

Sounds like it could be the pinch roller. I'd play around with that a bit before pulling the flywheel out! I found I had to file a little off the plastic housing on my new pinch roller to get it to play properly - before i did that it the 244 was playing slow and had loads of wow - sort of ground along. After I shaved a fraction of a mm off the plastic (top and bottom) I was able to spin the roller freely in its housing with a finger tip and when I put it back in the mounting it worked fine. Check you have the pressure spring mounted properly too by looking at Dr Zee's pics - I cocked this up at first!

If not it could also be that the pinch roller is slipping - the extra torque from the drive reels might be help the tape through a bit better at the start of the reel.

All the best - you will fix it for sure!

Update - just got your update as writing this - have just tried and find it very difficult to slow or stop my pinch roller using finger pressure when running with the cassette out.
 
Hi Findlay. Interesting. I have now cleaned the pinch roller with cotton buds and some water and tiny bit of liquid soap. Took my time and used very little moisture and the pinch roller grips better but I can still stop it fairly easily. Pretty sure the spring is correct and I follow Dr Zee's guide too. My pinch roller spins freely when not engaged so no problem there. I think there was a slight improvement afterwards and less wow (maybe) but still won't turn the cassettes once it's played about 10 minutes or so of a 90 minute tape (45 mins ).

Without a tape in, can you easily stop the cassette drive wheels, ( the right one ) when in play? Is it the pinch roller or the drive wheel that the cassettes sit on that actually do most of the work. I am thinking its a combined effort, is that correct do you know?

I will re look at the drive belts and see what happens there when it slows down playing a tape. I am still thinking there's a problem with the actual motor not being powerful enough and that could mean it's clogged up, which I doubt, or the capacitors that give it the oomph are not working properly. Maybe the drive belt slips but I doubt that too.

Anyway, slowly but surely I hope to sort it out. Thanks so much for your ideas! It is definitely worth doing! Hahah

Cheers again!
 
Hi Evom,

I tried 2 machines. Without a tape, one was fairly difficult to stop the right cassette drive wheel. the other was pretty easy. Both have replaced idlers. I don't think this is an issue - the capstan should control tape flow and the take up reel should adjust itself independently. I would recommend fitting a brand new pinch wheel before anything drastic. The ones I mentioned before are superb and delivery is very quick.

I don't think the capacitors have much effect. They won't give the motor more oomph as far as I can tell. In a negative way if they are leaking they might be reducing the drive voltage so you could try disconnecting them. You could also try cleaning the speed control with Servisol. Have you tried running at max speed?

Cheers,

Findlay
 
Hi Findlay, thanks for that info. Adjusting the speed control doesn't help, it works but doesn't give it more torque and the tapes still stop or go slow. I will try a few of your suggestions before ordering a new pinch roller and will update the thread.

The capacitor idea only came from another discussion I read so wasn't sure if that would help anyway.

Cheers
 
Hi Evom,

The only other thing I can think of is that maybe some rubber belt goop has got trapped around the spindle below the drive motor pulley. This happenned with my control motor. I guess you had thought of that before..... it reduced the motor to glacial speed. I can't see how to remove that drive pulley though To clean. Hi guess you have already used cotton buds.

Hope you fix it soon!

Cheers
 
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