HELP!!! Fostex R8 will not play, but everything else functions

[conjugalvisits]

where to start?

yesterday we recorded on the r8 for about 6 hours, no problems what so ever.
play, record, fast forward, rewind all worked perfectly.
i rewound the reel back to it's zero position and powered it off, for we were gonna record the next day (today).

entered the garage and powered the unit and mixer on, and went outside for a smoke and a drink. came back in and pressed play.
tape just stuck. okay, i pressed fast forward, that worked. pressing locate0, it rewound right back to 0 no problems. pressed play, tape just stuck again.

ive looked up a lot of information on the forums about it here prior to posting, sounds like its either the tape (sticky tape), the capstan rubber being old, or the capstan motor isn't working.

i haven't opened it up to see if the belt has come off. but i did take off the face of the unit, held up the back tension arm with my finger and pressed play. it played!
then i put the reels back on and threaded them through. and pressed play. nothing, just stuck again.

how can i tell if the capstan motor isnt working?
solutions for any of these problems?????

thanks,
-nick

 

[Chilljam]

From my experience, it's most likely that the belt has either fallen off the pulley or the pulley (plastic) is slipping on the (metal) shaft.

Given that you are still getting play when the reels are off (under lighter load), I'd guess that your pulley is just slipping on the metal shaft. What I did was detach the pulley from the shaft, get some quick-set glue and drench the metal shaft and the hole in the pulley that contacts the metal shaft with glue, then put the belt over the pulley then place the pulley back onto the metal shaft. Wait a couple of hours for the glue to set (to be safe) and then put the face plate back on and start using the transport functions again.

If it's just the belt that has come off the pulley, well then just detach the pulley, put the belt back over the pulley and then reattach the pulley (careful, the belt isn't very elastic and may not be that easy to reattach).

It's not likely that sticky tape will completely 'freeze' your tape.. it's more likely that the tape will begin playing (or play slowly) then grind to a gradual halt.

To check if the capstan motor is working, simply lift the right tension arm with your hand (with no tape loaded) and if you hear can hear the motor start and stop as you raise and lower the tension arm (pretty quiet but definitely audible) then your motor is working.

 

[conjugalvisits]

thanks!
it was the belt that had slipped off. i opened the back and put it back on.
it felt like it had a lot of elasticity. is that normal?

any recommendations on keeping it on so it doesn't slip off again?
did anybody ever figure out where to get replacements?