Need help on Installing a Capstan Belt on a Tascam 38

J

johnbilben

New member
so a kind gentleman on this here forum brought to my attention that the capstan shaft on my Tascam 38 is not spinning when i hold both tension arms up and hit play. Everything works fine on the machine. The reels spin, everything powers up, the rubber pinch roller clamps the way its supposed to, so this was the only problem. He said its pretty normal on a vintage machine for the capstan belt to go bad and i went ahead and called Tascam and ordered my new capstan belt. However, i have NO CLUE what I'm doing but I'm very confident that with some good help i can tackle this and get it installed myself. Can anyone walk me through this? I'd be forever in debt to you.

-John
 
Can you hear the capstan motor when you lift up the right tension arm? You should be able to. Then the belt is probably the problem. If you want to see the belt you have to take the front panel off and then behind the head stack is where the belt is. You'll have to remove the head stack a little to get to it (4 screws) If you have the manual it'd probably be best to refer to that for all the little details.
 
well i dont really know what the capstan motor sounds like but i do hear a motor and i see the reels spinning fast. the manual is very difficult for me to understand you know? when i take of the front cover where exactly would i find the belt and how would i know if its broken or damaged?
 
John,

Lift the tension arms, BUT DON'T HIT PLAY, FFWD, REW OR ANYTHING. Just turn the deck on, lift the arms, and see if you can hear a motor spin up.
 
Installing belt on the 38....

Take a look at this thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=238939

It's the 34 but likely it's the same procedure for the 38 [as is for the 30 series]. Make sure to read the entire 1st page of that thread 'cause there was some trial & error but finally got it right.

NOTE: You definitely want to access the belt from the front, rather than the back, by unscrewing and swinging out the head-plate.

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John,

This is one of the threads I PM'ed you about.

Daniel, thanks for the confirmation that it it will likely have application to changing a 38 belt.

Also, John, did you see this? Look at the last couple posts. Confirmation that there is also some similarity with the procedure for the TSR-8 belt replacement and there are a couple photos in that thread.

Daniel's (cjacek's) thread on the 34 though has lots of detail and he did a great job documenting his pitfalls :rolleyes: which is to your benefit and others too.

Hope this helps. ;)
 
thank you guys alot man! im about to tackle to SOB right about now. i just got the new belt in the mail. wish me luck. ill let you know how it goes
 
thanks to everybody that had a say in helping me change the belt. i was 100 percent successful in less than an hour. i have a feeling i will be coming to this forum for much of my analog needs. thanks again to SteveM and sweetbeats and the guy who gave me that link. you guys are all bad asses.

it seems that the belt that was previously on it was demolished. i guess it was already broken when i bought the machine so when i kept turning it on and running the motor i was literally MELTING the broken belt. i opened it up and there was melted rubber inside everywhere. most of the time i was replacing the part was spent cleaning all that shit off with isopropyl alcohol.


thanks again guys.
 
More than likely you didn't melt the belt...that vintage of gear often has rubber components that have turned to goo and make a mess all over the innards of the gear...belts, rollers, solenoid cushions...fairly common really. Apparently some manuafacturers switched their supplier of rubber parts and there was a problem with the new supplier not curing the formula long enough or something like that, so over time the rubber returns to the previous gooey state.

If you have other functions that don't seem to work right like brakes or the pinch roller engaging or that sort of thing, look at the little rubber washers on the solenoids (the plunger thingies that engage the brakes, pinch roller, etc.). They had turned to goo on both my 48 and my 58. Same thing...you take 'em apart and clean it all up with alcohol or some other mild solvent. Tascam has the washers for $1.50 each. I can find the part number if needed. Good as new!

If you have this kind of trouble I can send some pics of what the solenoids look like.

So have you tried pressing PLAY yet???? :eek:
 
yess i pressed play and it works perfect. plays back the way its supposed to. what do those washers look like tho? a picture would be good.
 
I'll try to put one up tonight, but, again, if it ain't broke don't fix it. If they were causing a problem the pinch roller wouldn't engage right away, or not at all, or the brakes wouldn't release right away when they are supposed to...that kind of thing

I'm not sure if the 38 has 2 or 3 solenoids: one for the pinch roller, one for the brakes, and maybe one for the lifters. I think the location of brake and pinch roller solenoids are as pictured below. Keep in mind the parts shown in the diagram are from a 32 with the skin off, but it should be pretty similar. Hope this doesn't confuse things further. I imagine you can get to both the brake and pinch roller solenoids just by having the upper dress panel removed, the same one you pulled to replace the capstan belt.

I can take a picture of one of the solenoids that has a gooey cushion in my 48 which is opened up right now so you know what to look for, and I'll try to get that posted later tonight.
 

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Here are the pics of the solenoid with the gooey cushion

The first one shows the solenoid with the plunger, and I'm also holding a new cushion in the foreground.

The second picture is just a more clear picture of the dessimated cushion without the plunger blocking the view.

Yuck!
 

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AK, yeah, isn't that gross?! :eek:

Phew! Thank goodness it comes off with iso alcohol.

My 58 was the same way. Its wierd because it was only the solenoid cushions and not any other rubber, and in my 48 its only 2 out of the 3 cushions. All supplier dependant. :rolleyes:
 
Man, that is pretty gooey indeed, Cory. :eek::D

On my 34 TASCAM they were close to that but not as bad. Still I pulled them off but never replaced 'em, as they're really not essential for proper operation. All that the cushions do is make functions more quiet and aid mechanical adjustments, where the solenoids are involved. So I guess they are pretty important in that way.;)

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