Help me not blow 600 bucks

G

Good Friend

New member
Well im still having Tascam 38 problems. Its still doing the same things. Play, forward, rewind, record all work fine. Only when the machine tries to stop rewinding either by itself returning to zero, or if i hit stop during rewind will it malfunction. It suddenly starts to make a "yar yar yar" ugly sort of spinning/grinding sound and then it starts fast forwarding and wont respond to any controls on either the front or the remote. The problem gets worse the longer the machine is left on.

If anyone has any advice on what it might be or what to check to see if i might be able to fix it myself id appreciate it because its looking like i will have to send it to Tascam. I already talked to the guy and they said $250-$350 plus parts plus shipping both ways plus ill have to buy the extensive boxing supplies. So im looking at serious cost to myself that id rather avoid if i could. So, if anyone has any advice on what to check from my description id appreciate it cause its getting to where im probably just going to have to send it and get raped. I guess i should just be glad i still can get it serviced rather than having no tech/service support at all.

Thanks

PS: the guy on the phone at tascam said hed never heard of a machine doing what i described which made me sad.
 
ok ok

I have to admit, i do not know what they are or what they do. If you can direct me to info or tell me about what they are and how to figure out if they are malfuctioning i would greatly appreciate it.
 
you need to take the face off of the machine. you do this by removing all of the knobs, rollers, a hidden nut around the pitch control, the head cover, and the bottom screws. you then should be able to find the brake solenoids, if I remember correctly. they look like pistons. You carefully mark the position of the screws, and then remove them, in order to free the piston. inside there is a rubber piece that has probably turned to goo. clean this out with alcohol, re-assemble, and hopefully the brakes will work again. just to be safe do a search on this problem, it has been described before and I might have missed something.
 
Sounds like a logic problem, not mechanical. Why else would it go into fast forward without the command from the function buttons?

Tim
 
alright

ive got the face off and im fast forwarding and rewinding. It occasionally does the fast forward thing when i hit stop. Maybe one in 15 times. But once i loaded the tape its doing it one out of two times. And there are more noises coming from inside the machine now that the tape is threaded. One thing i have noticed, it seems to do the fast forward thing when i hit stop more often when it has been rewinding for a longer period of time, but not as a rule.

Are the solenoids the two little boxes, one under the takeup reel and one in between both reels? I can see there are screws in the metal boxes but i didnt know if i was supposed to try to remove them to get at anything or not. So i havent done anything but test the rewind functions and everything with the front off to see if anything was very obviously going wrong. I am unsure about what i need to do with the solenoids as far as removal and cleaning. What do you mean by "mark them"?
 
Also

I am starting to wonder if it might be something wrong with the motion sensing circuit. Because i was reading the manual and it was saying all the shit about how one reel starts to go the other way when the other is braking and all that, so i tried just rewinding without tape coming off the take up reel and it hasnt fucked up since. So im going to keep messing with it to make sure but it seems to only malfunction if there is tape coming back off the take up reel onto the supply during rewind.

I am a total noob at this stuff so im just trying to guess and read and guess and read and ask and guess and so on.
 
yes, those are them. there is a bit of adjustment you can make on them, by repositioning them via the screws. meaning, if you take a look, the screws are in a certain position...you need to mark the position before you go unscrewing anything, or else you will have a "fun" time trying to reposition them again. i'm not sure if cleaning the solenoids will cure your problem or not, at this point.
 
This may be a long shot, but did you try turning off the return to zero function? It does have some kind of logic functioning.
 
more crap

Ive tried that, but ill try it again. Ive been messing with it. It only screws up when the tape is threaded. Also, ive realized that the machine is handling the tape really jerky. Like when i press play it just YANKS the tape sending the arm bouncing all the way down and back and sometimes causing the arm to dip so far down it temporarily thinks there is no tension. And if it just happens to not have enough momentum, the deck will actually come to a full stop and ill have to push play again to get it going. I dont know, im getting pretty frustrated and the heat of the lamp im using has fried my brain for one evening. Im going to have to mess with it again later. I dont know what else i can do for now.
 
Along with the other suggestions I would look at the transport control PCB at some point. Insufficient grounding or bad capacitors can cause this sort of flakiness. It could be any type of component that has gone bad, but caps are at the top of the list.

If the deck was stored in a moist environment, like a basement or something there could also be shorts created by corrosion. Dust and corrosion can form little rogue circuits that cause confusion in the logic control. Even the protective coating on the circuit board can deteriorate and allow energy to travel where you don’t want it to go.

I’ve fixed a few vintage devices just by spraying the circuit board clean with a solvent. CRC Lectra Clean electric motor cleaner available at Home Depot or Lowes does the job, as will Gun Scrubber, available at Wal-Mart in the sporting goods section. Be careful around buttons, tweakers and plastic. This is very strong stuff. It won’t hurt the PCB at all, but can cause discoloration if spilled on soft plastic, like on the front panel. Also, keep a window open or use it outside so you won’t feel jittery and hear voices in your head.

:)
 
solenoids

No i havent opened up the solenoids simply because i thought my lack of experience would lead to more harm than help. Also, im not sure which screws are for adjustment and which are holding them together.

I will try all of these suggestions. Thank you.
 
“…then it starts fast forwarding and wont respond to any controls on either the front or the remote. The problem gets worse the longer the machine is left on.”

Run away transport getting worse as machine is on (due to heat) usually = transport/logic board issues as outlined in post #12. First mentioned by Tim Gillett in #6.

Or worse... logic control ICs are fried and not just the components around them. Something else to look at...Just like a PC if the boards are covered in dust the ICs will reach and exceed their maximum operating temperature faster. A misbehaving component like cap or resistor can also cause heat issues.

:)
 
ok

So if you dont mind, how should i go about trying to determine whether its something in the board? Is it something i might be able to just "see" with my eyes possibly? Is this getting to the point where i have no choice but to send it to Tascam?
 
Good Friend said:
So if you dont mind, how should i go about trying to determine whether its something in the board? Is it something i might be able to just "see" with my eyes possibly? Is this getting to the point where i have no choice but to send it to Tascam?
Click to expand...

Visual inspection is looking for loose, burnt, smelly, disconnected and in general things out of place.

As long as you have the back open you could use contact cleaner on any of the many connectors. Squirt them, wiggle them, pull them and put them back.

Where are you located?
 
Strange

OK after i looked inside and saw that everything was seemingly "newish" looking without any burnt or leaky looking components i went and read some previous posts about 38 brake solenoids getting gummy rubber parts so i checked mine and the rubber washers are also like new and there doesnt seem to be any mess or goop or anything.

BUT

Now the machine is no longer doing the sudden fast forward when stop is pushed thing. Ive just spent the last few hours playing with it and testing the rewind and stop. It hasnt repeated the same malfunction once since i have been testing it. But the strange thing is that now that its not doing it anymore there is a strange "whirring" sound that was never there before coming from the left side of the machine as rewind begins or ends. It sounds sluggish sortof like the motor is starting to go bad. It doesnt make the sounds nearly as much after rewind has picked up speed. Only as it is starting to rewind or as rewind is coming to a stop. It also only does this when tape is threaded. Rewind is smooth and silent as long as no tape is threaded. I will say that the sound popped up mildy for the first time a day ago just as the stopping malfuction was happening less and less. Now, the sound is VERY obvious, and there is no more of the sudden fast forward "glitch" crap happening.

Does this sound like anything obvious to anyone? Thanks for your patience in reading all my ridiculousness so far i appreciate it. You are doing a truly good deed in helping me and dont think i dont appreciate it.
 
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