Play Motor Speeding up and Slowing down!

N

nostrovia

New member
It seems something is seriously wrong with my Tascam 488mkii. When I play any tape, the speed of the drive motor operates very erratically. It just started doing this all of a sudden yesterday night. Can anyone tell me what might be wrong. Is the motor shot? I have had the unit on for about two months straight, all the time with a tape in it. So the motor has been turning. I don't know if that could have created this problem though. I thought the drive motor was supposed to last a very long time. Can any one point me in the right direction? THANKS!

Chris Rizzo
 
Shouldn't have hurt the motor. Might check the drive belt. I had a turntable years ago that was accidentally left on for a couple months causing the drive belt to stretch and glaze.
 
You did't say if you tryed cleaning and demagnatizing your heads.
Whoo and flutter sound alot like motor problems.
 
jimimac the reason I think it is the motor is that I can hear the tone of the motor's hum getting higher and lower. Also the speed changes are so great. The motor can actually fall to an almost dead stop. The drive belt sounds like a good idead to check. Maybe it got a bit toasted from the heat of being on a long time.
 
The motors in the 488 and 688 keep running constantly [to maintain tape tension]. This means that if you leave them on for prolonged periods, you are in effect wearing a dead spot in the belts used in the transport.

What you are hearing is probably a combination of two things:
1) motor wear from being left on (ever seen/heard an electric motor seize? same thing)
2) belt wear from the same.

If you're really lucky you could probably replaced the belts and have it work fine after that. If the motor is damaged, it will need replacing.

Either way, you're facing repairs, and unless you have a service manual, access to parts, and the knowhow to fix this, I would really recommend taking it to an authorised Tascam service depot to have it fixed.

Good luck,
D.
 
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