34B Capstan Motor Lube and Cold Solder Joints

[R. D. Davis]

Greetings everyone!

This afternoon, my 34B's capstan motor began making a
squeaking sound. I was about to oil it, but seeing that a certain
type of oil from Tascam is mentioned in the manual, but not
seeing any other info. about the oil, I'm taking a guess and
thinking that this is light machine oil, like one would use
for other motors, etc. Is this correct? Now to find where to
put the oil... no mention of that appears obvious in the
owner's/service manual.

Needless to say, I'm not using it until I stop the squeak, lest
the squeak turn into a bigger problem. ... and after the fun
of some recent problems with more cold solder joints making
themselves apparent, I don't feel like any more problems with
this deck for a while. Are cold solder joints on the motherboard
fairly routine for these machines? A while back, I did some
disassembly, removed the motherboard, resoldered some
cold solder joints (intermittent... what fun!), then to be on
the safe side, also resolded some other joints that appeared
questionable. Some that I missed became intermittent and
had to be resoldered this weekend.

Of course, this deck was way out of alignment when I bought
it... it was like someone gave a monkey some screwdrivers and
sat the monkey in front of the tape deck with the trim-pots and
head stack exposed! All channels, both sync and repro heads!
...and the back of the motherboard was coated with some
dark substance and what looked like cat hair... who knows
what horrors this machine's been subjected to in the past.
Lots of clean-up time, a new capstan belt and roller, etc.
were needed, but it seems to be a rather nice deck.

Just beware of e-bay ads stating that something is in great
working condition!

Oh yeah... one more thing, when removing or replacing the
front panel, be very careful with the vacuum fluoescent
display... I broke the tip off of mine, letting air into it,
turning the display white, and had to order a new tape counter
display from Tascam... not cheap!

[A Reel Person]

this was the 34B from hell?

[Beck]

Sewing machine oil or 3-in-one oil is just right. A great place to get a motor oiling syringe is from theteacman on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5800987345

He'll send you a nice syringe and instructions for only $5.95.

A nice fellow and very helpful.

-Tim

[R. D. Davis]

Originally Posted by A Reel Person

this was the 34B from hell?

One might think that! ...it's taught me a lot about disassembing, calibrating,
reassembling and repairing a 34B though... still more to
learn... like calibrating for wow and flutter. Is a special
wow & flutter test tape truly needed?

Now, for more fun with this great find from e-bay...

Tonight I set out to find out why the reels don't
wind evenly and why the left reel wobbles somewhat. Swapping
reel tables shows that they're not the problem. If I hold a piece
of paper against the bare shaft while it spins, near the top
of the shaft, a slight tapping sound of the shaft against the
paper can be heard. I'm thinking that this may possibly be a
bent shaft... something I don't like the thought of.

Perhaps I can fit some sort of shim between the flange and the
reel table to correct this. If Tascam wanted $50 for that little
counter display, and over $20 for a pinch roller, I hate to think
what a motor costs. A machine shop probably won't be any
less expensive.

There don't seem to be any adjustments for this; the
flange wobbles slightly on the shaft when the set screws are
loosened, but no adjusting that seems to make any difference.
I'll try repositioning it a few more times, since there's one flat
area on the shaft... just maybe that will work.

Has anyone else here run into a problem like this? Suggestions? (besides stick it back on e-bay)

[R. D. Davis]

Originally Posted by Beck

Sewing machine oil or 3-in-one oil is just right. A great place to get a motor oiling syringe is from theteacman on eBay.

Thanks for the info... I didn't check that out yet, but did find
something called "turbine oil" in the hardware store... it was
the only light machine oil they had, everything else had various
additives that I didn't want. The capstan motor and the capstan
assembly above the flywheel are now quiet.

That syringe may be quite useful, since, even though I was
careful not to use much oil, I still used a little too much on
some of the rollers since a little oil splattered on a blank tape,
not a good thing to happen.