Tascam 564 Minidisc drive belt replacement

  • Thread starter Thread starter MattyBalaam
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MattyBalaam

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I dug out my old Tascam 564, to try and transfer off some recordings I made in the 90s, but the drive would not work anymore. I unscrewed the device to take a look and saw that the belt for part of the minidisc had become too loose.

Does anyone have any idea of what kind of belt I would need to replace it? I’m hoping this is all that is wrong with the unit. I tried looking for a service manual but turned up nothing.

Here is a view showing all of the drive:

IMG_20190421_152936.webp

Here is the drive while I was removing the belt:

IMG_20190421_151439.webp
 
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I have recieved a reply from Tascam support who state:

I am most sorry but individual parts for the mechanism were never available- the mech block had to be replaced as a completer unit but these too are long since obsolete.
Click to expand...

I am ordering a selection set of belts to see if I can find the right one through trial and error.
 
Found some time to fit the new belt today and I now have a working minidisc and fully working 564 again.
 
Good for you. The belt is just a belt and all you need do is find the right sized one. What they are telling you is that Tascam never made the part and they got it from someone else like Sony. No need to worry about them, as you found your own answer.
 
Looking around it seemed like a very high proportion of Sony’s MiniDisc drives have this single point of failure around a drive belt. Hoping that sharing the info helps someone else in future :)
 
Would you mind telling us where you got the correct belt (and part #) as my Tascam 564 is suffering from this problem also.
 
Another problem with the drive in the 564 is the fact that the grease tends to dry up on the mechanism and therefore won't eject or play.
 
MattyBalaam said:
I dug out my old Tascam 564, to try and transfer off some recordings I made in the 90s, but the drive would not work anymore. I unscrewed the device to take a look and saw that the belt for part of the minidisc had become too loose.

Does anyone have any idea of what kind of belt I would need to replace it? I’m hoping this is all that is wrong with the unit. I tried looking for a service manual but turned up nothing.

Here is a view showing all of the drive:

View attachment 104480

Here is the drive while I was removing the belt:

View attachment 104481
Click to expand...
If only you had a clearer pic ... I could fix my laser assembly which is in the middle of your pic. I damaged it whe I was putting it back. :(
 
MattyBalaam said:
Looking around it seemed like a very high proportion of Sony’s MiniDisc drives have this single point of failure around a drive belt. Hoping that sharing the info helps someone else in future :)
Click to expand...
Would you happen to know the size and where you bought them? I’m looking at a machine on eBay currently and prep for the possibility the belt is rotten. As an aside has anyone found somewhere other than Japan to buy the data discs?
 
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