Cassette Deck Niggle - Sony TC-136SD Rewind button makes it Fast Forward...

teamoth

New member
Hiya, I'm new to the forum and also a new owner of a Sony TC-136SD tape deck that I have inherited. I've been enjoying making recordings on it and picking up tapes in charity shops. All in all I'm enjoying cassettes...

But... My tape deck does not rewind, pressing rewind does exactly the same thing as fast forward. I'm kind of living with it at the moment by turning the tape over and using fast forward when I need to rewind.

Anyone have any ideas why this might be happening? Is this something that people have heard of before?

Thanks!

Teamoth
 
It's likely that a cam drive lever assembly is not engaging to drive the supply reel table spindle. So fixing that is going to involve being competent enough to do this type of repair and being able to find the replacements part.

Or, you could just take it to a local repair shop that will charge you $50 an hour or more to fix it for you. And considering that decks like this commonly sell on Craig's list for $30 bucks or less, it's a poor investment to go that route.

Cheers! :)
 
Hiya, thanks for your reply. I'm quite used to repairing the odd thing and used to solder for a living, but don't have much experience with tape decks. I've had the bottom of the case off and have been looking at it. I imagined that the motor turned both ways, one way for rewind and one for fast forward, but have I got the wrong end of the stick, as mine just spins one way. I'd like to try and fix it if I can, as it came from someone I knew. Thanks Teamoth
 
Understood on the sentimental value of the deck.

Motors being or not being bidirectional is not the issue here. You have to look at the mechanics of how it pulls tape, via cam drive wheel or via belt and see what is positively happening in fast forward that is not happening in rewind. A stuck cam wheel pivot arm would explain that or loose and/or broken belt would as well. Look closer and more critically at what's going on inside your deck.

Cheers! :)
 
Hi, thanks again for your reply! I think you are right, I need to get a much better understanding of what is going on inside the deck. I've had to put it back together again today so that we can listen to some tapes. I'm listening to a nice old Ravi Shankar recording right now. I think this tape deck sounds great, but admittedly I've not had much experience with tape decks. I'm going to see if I can find a service manual online and then open it up and really get my head round what's going on with it. I'm moving house soon, so might have to put it off for a bit, but it would be cool to sort it out. Thanks again for the advice. Teamoth
 
Rewind solved

Hi, thanks again for your reply! I think you are right, I need to get a much better understanding of what is going on inside the deck. I've had to put it back together again today so that we can listen to some tapes. I'm listening to a nice old Ravi Shankar recording right now. I think this tape deck sounds great, but admittedly I've not had much experience with tape decks. I'm going to see if I can find a service manual online and then open it up and really get my head round what's going on with it. I'm moving house soon, so might have to put it off for a bit, but it would be cool to sort it out. Thanks again for the advice. Teamoth

Despite it being years since the posting, it seems that it is a common problem with this deck and as I've fixed it, it seemed sensible to answer. The motor only turns one way and the reverse mechanism is mechanical.

1) Place the recorder upside down on a large pillow (so that the switch levers won't be damaged) and remove the base by unscrewing the six crosshead screws.

2) There is a white wheel with a rubber tyre which moves to engage the reverse of the take-off reel. To find this you will see a white wheel with the large copper wheel on top of it. Hidden underneath this is is the problematic white wheel with tyre.

3) You will need to remove the capstan flywheel plate and carefully remove the capstan by lifting out the flywheel. You will then see the previously mentioned white wheel and tyre (see the second picture). The cam that this wheel is on should be complexly free on the shaft of the second rivet. Unfortunately the grease goes rock hard and you can only move that cam with pliers and a mole grip wrench. Not good! The fix is to remove the whole cam with the dark coloured alloy arm, held by a flat slotted screw. Once detached. the cir-clip holding the arm on the cam can be removed, the cam detached, carefully cleaned and one drop of sewing machine oil applied to the shaft and then reassemble. The cam lever should be totally loose and fall from side to side under its own weight.

It's worth taking lots of pictures as you dismantle, which will help when you put it all back together!

Unfortunately as I'm a new user on this forum it seems that I can't post pictures. If this changes I'll update this post.
 
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