Removing Tascam 38 head assembly

[bloomboy]

I'm sending my heads off to JRF to be relapped since wear finally made tracks 7 and 8 unusable. I've taken off the front panel and unscrewed the head assembly, but it's attatched to a bundle of cables that goes deeper into the machine. I have no idea how to disattatch it- am I going to have to break the solder and then re-solder when I get the assembly back, or is there a simpler way?

thanks,
theo

[SteveM]

Originally Posted by bloomboy

I'm sending my heads off to JRF to be relapped since wear finally made tracks 7 and 8 unusable. I've taken off the front panel and unscrewed the head assembly, but it's attatched to a bundle of cables that goes deeper into the machine. I have no idea how to disattatch it- am I going to have to break the solder and then re-solder when I get the assembly back, or is there a simpler way?

thanks,
theo

Are you sending the whole head assembly? Each head should be wired to a 16 pin cap that unplugs off the head assembly. I just sent the heads in when I had mine done.

[bloomboy]

They asked me to send the whole head assembly, which makes sense since they're also going to align them optically.

[The Ghost of FM]

Originally Posted by SteveM

Are you sending the whole head assembly? Each head should be wired to a 16 pin cap that unplugs off the head assembly. I just sent the heads in when I had mine done.

I looked in my schematics of the 38 and they talk about a head PCB which in turn connects to the Motherboard PCB. They don't really document properly where this board is in the exploded diagrams, unless I missed it?

How did you gain access to this connection? From the bottom of the 38? From the back of the 38? This is the key question of this thread.

Cheers!

[SteveM]

The head PCB is right above the heads. You can see where they plug in just by taking the head cover off. You have to remove the whole front cover to remove the head assembly though, of course. It looks like there are just two screws holding the PCB down on the head assembly, if you unplug the heads and remove those two screws you should be able to free the wires running to the mother board. Then there are just 4 screws and a spring holding the head assembly.

Like I said I didn't remove the whole head assembly but it looks like its just those two screws holding the PCB there. The wires to the main board may be cable tied there as well, I'm not sure.

[bloomboy]

Forgive my ignorance, but is the PCB the narrow green board that the wires from the heads are attatched to? and are you saying they can somehow be unplugged from this? if this is the case, do you think unscrewing the PCB from the head assembly, unplugging the heads, and then removing the head assembly without the PCB would work? I'll mess around with it when I get home- but when I last checked I didn't see any way to unplug the bundles of wires.

thanks,
theo

[SteveM]

Originally Posted by bloomboy

Forgive my ignorance, but is the PCB the narrow green board that the wires from the heads are attatched to? and are you saying they can somehow be unplugged from this? if this is the case, do you think unscrewing the PCB from the head assembly, unplugging the heads, and then removing the head assembly without the PCB would work? I'll mess around with it when I get home- but when I last checked I didn't see any way to unplug the bundles of wires.

thanks,
theo

Yes, that's the PCB. Those black caps just unplug, unless yours for some reason are soldered directly and you don't have black caps?? Anyhow, if you do, unplug the heads and then (I think) if you just unscrew the pcb by those two screws it'll leave the pcb attached to the wires running into the machine and you can remove the head assembly by removing the four screws and the spring.

I had never thought of sending the whole head assembly. It makes sense though.

[bloomboy]

That worked perfectly. Thanks ghost and SteveM.

For future reference for anyone who finds this thread:

-the front cover is pretty easy to get off, but make sure you have a pair of needle-nosed pliars for the flanged bolt under the pitch control knob

-Unscrew the PCB (green board, one medium sized screw on each end and two small ones in between the black rectangles) from the head assembly before trying to remove it, then just unplug the black rectangles.