Tascam MS 16 rewind and fast forward problem

[Michaeliran]

Hi
I have the Tascam ms 16 tape machine
it is playing and recording properly but in fast forward or rewind mode it moves slow and stucks.
when bypassing the tension arms and the heads it runs fast as it should.
any idea for what is wrong?

 

[man-bot]

I assume you are only hitting the button once? If you press it twice the speed is much slower.

Pretty silly question - but I thought I would ask.

Mike

 

[sweetbeats]

What kind of tape are you using?

 

[Mack Caster]

I assume you are only hitting the button once? If you press it twice the speed is much slower.

Pretty silly question - but I thought I would ask.

Mike

It's often the simple things that trip us up! Spent 15 mins yesterday, trying to figure out why my signal was not showing up in Reaper. Seems the wifee needed my USB port for her iPad. First time she ever did that and I had no reason to start my trouble shooting there, and that is just exactly where I should have started.

Pick a wire/pull a wire!
​

 

[jpmorris]

Yeah, I can think of three possibilities off the top of my head. While spooling mode is a possibility, I wouldn't expect it to come to a complete stop.

1. Sticky shed - as Sweetbeats says, what kind of tape is it?
2. Tension too low - where the tension is servo-controlled, there's usually independent settings for play and fast wind modes.
3. Brakes partially on. On my B77 this happened, it would slow to a stop when the braking force equalled the tape tension. However, that tends to be on machines with static tension, and I believe the MS16 is servo-controlled.

 

[Michaeliran]

I was advised to replace the motor pcb
but I will check if the brakes causing the problem first

Thanks

 

[jpmorris]

Again, what kind of tape are you running? If it's old Ampex stuff, that may be the problem, not the machine.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yes. Don’t jump to shotgunning components or while PCB assemblies. Your symptoms match sticky shed syndrome. What tape are you using?