Tascam 244 head inspection cover

  • Thread starter Thread starter Findlay
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Findlay

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Does anyone know what sort of tool I need to open up the inspection cover for the heads and pinch roller? It would be useful to save having to to take the machine apart again. Dr Zee shows a strange tool in his pics which I can't find anywhere:
http://www.mzentertainment.com/pics/teac_244/dr_zee_workshop_tascam_244_project_part3.jpg

The cover has two screws with a head that has two tiny holes about 6 mm apart. Years ago I saw pliers which has a couple of pins rthat could have been used this but can't seem to track these down either. Any help appreciated! I've tried using a small round section jewellers tool but the screws are too tight for this to shift them.
 
I've used needle nose pliers before and even the prongs on a fork, but it seems yrs is on really tight. Every time I've unscrewed the transport cover for the first time on a new machine it's always pretty easy to get off so I wonder why it's on there so tight. The tool that's pictured there isn't a special kind that was made for that, it's just pointed so he used it. Go in there again and really give it a good turn. It'll come off. I've taken two forks that had prongs that fit, and placed the outer prong of one of em in one of the holes and the other one in the other and pressed down hard while pushing one up and pulling one the opposite way. It took a couple tries but it came off. This was before I had pliers that essentially do the same thing, just easier. I did that probably 5-6 times and got em off eventually.

Also, you may know this already but I figure I should say something because I found out the hard way. Getting that cover off gets you better access to the heads but you cannot take the pinch roller wheel off without taking the face off. That's on both the 244 and the 246.
 
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Thanks for this. I tried using the forks but still couldn't budge it. But inspired by your reply I made a tool by taping two long nails together and finally got the cover off. Thanks for pointing out about not being able to take the pinch roller off this way. The reason I wanted to take a look was that I replaced the pinch roller on this machine and found that the wheel seems to be running slightly eccentrically. The wheel holder assembly bounces sideways a mm or so every few seconds. At first I was getting some noticeable wow but I can't detect it now -at least with decent old SA cassettes - some newer shells seem to produce some wow, but maybe this is normal. I don't really want to take it apart again to put another wheel on as I'm scared of losing that tiny spring clip! Last time it flew off and it took me ages to rescue it from the bowels of the machine. I wonder if it will settle in time? I also wondered if anyone know of any wow and flutter software I could use to check it out more?
 
Thanks for the help. I've just found a method for measuring w&f and posted a new thread on this. It seems I'm getting about 4x normal w&f with this roller!
 
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Yeah, that's annoying.Where did you get the new pinch roller wheel?
 
I bought it on eBay. One I bought a few weeks before from the same supplier and put on another 244 is perfect. I hope I didn't damage it putting it in. Don't see how I could have.
 
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