Tascam 424 woes.. plz halp!

B

bluebeartapes

New member
Hey all,
I've been a proud Tascam 424 owner since about 2004 or so. In 2007, the power supply first got a little loose, then failed completely. The solder came loose on one of the legs of the power socket, and the solder pad eventually was lost completely. The good news — I was able to come up with a solution through some creative soldering. The bad news — now, none of the buttons (pause, play, record, FF, RW, seem to do anything, and aside from the pinch roller spinning at the bottom right hand side of the tape housing, which begins on power up. The head doesn't appear to engage. Has anyone ever had similar problems? Any idea how to fix this?
 
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Greetings. Is this a mkI, mkII or mkIII 424?

Anybody know if the there is a control belt that engages the headblock on the 424? Maybe he's got a broken control belt and nothing will work because the headblock assembly can't be actuated?
 
sweetbeats said:
Greetings. Is this a mkI, mkII or mkIII 424?

Anybody know if the there is a control belt that engages the headblock on the 424? Maybe he's got a broken control belt and nothing will work because the headblock assembly can't be actuated?
Click to expand...

That was the issue with my 246. The belt was totally broken.
 
I've got one here. I've got a mk1 (the first type of 424 they made). If yours is a mk1 I'd be glad to take the cover off of it and help you out. let me know
 
I opened it up at one point and so I did take a look at the transport and capstan assembly, because I'm also trying to fix a 488 that keeps presenting me more headaches (first a simple belt replacement, then the headphone jack had to be resoldered, now a wire in one of the PCB terminal connections came loose. :o). All the belts looked present and accounted for, though I suppose the band for the transport could be loose or out of whack. I might try to give that a shot. This also sat in a closet for literally 10 years before this weekend, so maybe the buttons are shot, IDK. I think it's an mkI — the gray variety.
 
That sounds like a mkI. The belt can be present but they degrade and become loose with age. Do any of the lamps associated with the transport control buttons light up when you press each button?
 
If it's sat for 10 years, my money is on a belt that's become loose and non-functional. Hopefully that's it, because that's a very easy fix.
 
Here's what mine looks like:

424-0.jpeg

Mine does the exact same thing as you described without a tape in it. So I pushed down with my finger on the black button shown at the end of the red arrow:

424-1.jpeg

.....when I did this, and then pushed play at the same time, the tape heads tried to engage and the lights lit up until I had to move my finger..


If you try this and your heads move, your tape might not be engaging the button. If nothing still happens, then that button may be the place to start.

Brad
 
I had the same happen to a 244 due to a broken belt. Hope you can get this fixed.

Brad - that pic of your 424 is showing 3 tape speeds. Is the top speed 3.75 or 7.5 ips?
 
Brad - that pic of your 424 is showing 3 tape speeds. Is the top speed 3.75 or 7.5 ips?
Click to expand...

High is 3.75 and slow is 15/16.... I use this for a collaboration group that does all their tapes at the normal 1.875 speed. I bought the thing really cheap for parts because it had a chunk out of it. Turns out after a little fiddlin, it worked fine, so I sold my good one and acquired other things that made my wife roll her eyes and shake her head.......
 
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