Teac A-3440 not Playing, but will FF and RW

[YetAnotherFrank]

Hi, before we go any further, I'm a complete newbie. The story so far...

Been given a Teac A-3440. Powers up, meters on. Will FF or Rewind, but will not Play or Rec, with any combination of the buttons pressed or unpressed. I have checked the operating manual and the tape is threaded correctly, all buttons are in the suggested default settings and the take up arm (?) is operating correctly.

Having carefully opened up the back, on the basis of the service manual, it is obvious that the dangling, sad, limp capstan belt, hanging off the flywheel, requires replacement (where would I get one without being ripped off??), but I would like to know if something more is wrong here, before I go incrementally buying bits in 'aha, well, if it's not that, then it must be this' mode.

The, erm, motor that drives the belt, is whirring away happily (if a little heatedly), but this is obviously not turning the capstan. I have looked closely at all the fuses (that I can see) and they appear to contain intact wire strands.

Pressing Play literally seems to do nothing - nothing changes. Nothing starts, nothing stops. No clicks of relays or anything. The tape lifters do not move up, neither does the pinch roller. (Man, it's amazing the lingo you can pick up trawling forums, )

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. I hoping I've missed something really dumb, as I hear great things about his machine.

Thanks.

Frank

[peritus]

Would this help?

[YetAnotherFrank]

Hi Peritus,

Well it's a different model and a different problem, I think. It talks about how the thing will play 'if I give it a little help'. In my case, nothing is moving into place to be able to play - the tape lifters stay where they are and the pinch wheel goes nowhere, so the tape's not even in contact with the heads.

Thanks for your input, though.

Frank

[SteveMac]

Originally Posted by YetAnotherFrank

Hi, before we go any further, I'm a complete newbie. The story so far...

Been given a Teac A-3440. Powers up, meters on. Will FF or Rewind, but will not Play or Rec, with any combination of the buttons pressed or unpressed. I have checked the operating manual and the tape is threaded correctly, all buttons are in the suggested default settings and the take up arm (?) is operating correctly.

Having carefully opened up the back, on the basis of the service manual, it is obvious that the dangling, sad, limp capstan belt, hanging off the flywheel, requires replacement (where would I get one without being ripped off??), but I would like to know if something more is wrong here, before I go incrementally buying bits in 'aha, well, if it's not that, then it must be this' mode.

The, erm, motor that drives the belt, is whirring away happily (if a little heatedly), but this is obviously not turning the capstan. I have looked closely at all the fuses (that I can see) and they appear to contain intact wire strands.

Pressing Play literally seems to do nothing - nothing changes. Nothing starts, nothing stops. No clicks of relays or anything. The tape lifters do not move up, neither does the pinch roller. (Man, it's amazing the lingo you can pick up trawling forums, )

Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. I hoping I've missed something really dumb, as I hear great things about his machine.

Thanks.

Frank

The belts are easily attainable. I bought one for the 3440 off ebay and it works good. Call tascam and see what they want and then compare prices. I think it was anywhere between 10 and 20 dollars. The play button WILL do nothing if there is no belt on there. The belt needs to be in place to turn the capstan.

[YetAnotherFrank]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply. So, just to make sure I understand, when you say the Play button WILL do nothing with no belt on there, you mean *absolutely* nothing - not only will the capstan fail to turn, but there will be no movement upward of the tape lifters and pinch roller? If so, that's great news.

I will investigate belt prices. Thanks!

Frank

[SteveMac]

Originally Posted by YetAnotherFrank

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply. So, just to make sure I understand, when you say the Play button WILL do nothing with no belt on there, you mean *absolutely* nothing - not only will the capstan fail to turn, but there will be no movement upward of the tape lifters and pinch roller? If so, that's great news.

I will investigate belt prices. Thanks!

Frank

Try lifting the tension roller and pressing play. I'm not 100% sure if the pinch roller is supposed to click in without the belt but the tape arm needs to be up to enable anything. Those arms aren't automated they're lifted up by the tension of the tape which sets the motor in motion. The play button functions then.

[YetAnotherFrank]

Hi Steve,

Yes, I've made sure the tape is loaded correctly and the arms are up - without them being, it won't even RW or FF. I will probably just invest in a new belt, since it's one very obvious problem, and hope that fixes all of it.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Frank

[YetAnotherFrank]

Actually guys, what would be really handy is if someone who's already got the back off a A-3440 could slip the capstan belt off for a couple of seconds and see whether pushing Play does anything. I know, cheeky... , but effective.

Frank

[Vintage TX]

The solenoid should kick in and tape-lifters engage even with a bad or broken belt.
Check the 2 switches on the R-tension-arm (facing front) sometimes these plastic switches break and power to the capstan is zero.
Hard to reach but look closely at both switches when lifting the tension arm from the front.
Backpanel need to come off first of course.

Good Luck,

[Vintage TX]

Forgot, on the top you find several fuses, take them out and test with a ohm-meter.
Even if they look good, they can be bad.

[Vintage TX]

Switches on the left side of the fly-wheel bracket.

[YetAnotherFrank]

Originally Posted by Vintage TX

Switches on the left side of the fly-wheel bracket.

Hi Vintage TX,

Yes, that looks to be the sort of wiry stuff I'm looking at. ;-) I will check your suggestions.

As to an ohmeter for the fuses, if I didn't have one, would a 12v battery and a flashlight bulb prove anything? I assume the fuses either conduct completely or not at all...? Also, do you know if it's still possible to get fuse wire? I remember this featuring largely in my youth in an ancient, damp English row house. Even if it is, would it be worth me jerry-rigging with it? If it worked, I'd obviously then invest in the proper fuses.

I might sound cheap. ;-) I really want this thing to work and I'd like to go logically from one checking step to the next, which is why your solenoid input is so very valuable. If I'd just gone and bought a new belt (obviously I will anyway, but still), *then* found out there was a deeper issue, I'd be well pissed off. This way, it's kind of a fun puzzle. Just the way my head works...

Thanks, and I'll let you know what I find out.

Frank

[Vintage TX]

Fuse wire and 12 battery..
I have seen old nails mounted as fuses and wires soldered betwen the posts... Don't rig too much, that can bite back and burn the house down.
You can find a cheap tester at Radio Shack or hardware store + pick up fuses at the same time.
Test first before buying a belt as the capstan-motor + solenoid and realy should kick in when pressing play (tape mounted on the machine of course)

[YetAnotherFrank]

Originally Posted by Vintage TX

Fuse wire and 12 battery..
I have seen old nails mounted as fuses and wires soldered betwen the posts... Don't rig too much, that can bite back and burn the house down.
You can find a cheap tester at Radio Shack or hardware store + pick up fuses at the same time.
Test first before buying a belt as the capstan-motor + solenoid and realy should kick in when pressing play (tape mounted on the machine of course)

Hi Vintage,

Well, went to Radio Shack and bought my multimeter, which appears to be a 5v battery with a dial attached instead of a light blub, and a price tag 20 times higher, :-). Seriously though, all the fuses check out OK.

I see the solenoid that moves everything into Play 'behind' the flywheel. This conspicuously does not move when I press Play, so I think whatever circuit fires it up might be to blame. Are there any more fuses in all that spaghetti?

I've confirmed (I hope) that the actual switch behind the Play button is OK, by going into FF and pressing Play, which stops FF, so something is registering that Play button push. I hope this is good news, as those switches seem pretty buried. Or, now I think about it, switching off FF could be a purely mechanical linkage between the various buttons...

OK, I've got me meter. Any ideas where to poke probes?

Thanks.

Frank

[aleaney]

Hey guys,

So, I'm in the process of trying to get my machine in top working condition, just replaced all the capacitors on each channel but as I reassemble it I've run into a few problems. First, I blew a fuse, took a while to figure this out since I tested it and everything seemed to be working, but replaced all 7 just to be sure. I've recently replaced the capstan belt less than 15 hours of use. I do need to replace the counter belt...

When I put it in play the pinch roller doesn't go right up to the capstan and the fly reels keep clicking. It does FFWD and RWD.
Here's a video of the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86eXtQg0_co

Any help would be very much appreciated!

[SteveM]

You might want to make a new thread for this. I'm not sure why that is doing it but someone else might. Interesting problem.