Teac X-2000BL

 This extremely heavy reel to reel tape deck arrived recently with a pair of HiFi amplifiers. Now that I've sorted out the latter I'm looking at this tape deck. The complaint was that the Tape Lifter wasn't working. This is a Teac X-2000BL which I've discovered is the same as a basic X-2000 except it's in a black finish, hence the additional "BL" in its designation. A more complex machine is the X-2000M which has more features.

See the Workshop Manual

 The owner reckons the problem with this machine is the Tape Lifter isn't working and sure enough this lever is completely seized. In fact I reckon it would snap off before moving. I guess the only option is to remove various bits of the equipment until I can spot why the feature isn't working.

 

 

 The Tape Lifter must be associated with the tape transport mechanism so I decided to open this up first.

 

 The cover for the display is held in place by three hex screws, but access to the Tape Lifter mechanism isn't accessible from the front so I need to remove the rear cover.

As I haven't seen one of these tape decks before, I'll start removing screws until it comes apart.

I removed most of the hex bolts from the front panel but I reckon these could have remained in place.. next I removed the four screws in each side. The rear cover began to loosen and by turning the case on its side I found four more screws used for securing a pair of feet that also held the cover to the chassis.

 

 Here's the view with the outer cover, revealing this pair of very large circuit boards carrying loads of connectors which all needed unplugging to access the tape transport assembly behind them. Fortunately the connectors are colour coded with matching halves and anyway mostly have different numbers of pins.

 

 The easiest way to get at the transport assembly was to detach the frame holding the boards, then pulling off all the connectors whilst releasing the cables from loads of clips.

Note that each cable connector is designed to clip in place over the pins by shaping the plastic shells with a triangular tooth along its length. Gently rotate the cable connector upwards from its pins whilst gently pulling outwards from side to side. Each cable can then easily be detached.

 

 Detaching the frame from the main chassis frame allows one to more easily unplug enough connectors to pull the whole thing clear to the left side.

Once the display has been unscrewed, and the flexible metal screen below it detached (as shown below), the display assembly with its pair of cables is ready to be withdrawn through the front panel.

This frees up the tape transport assembly carrying the capstan motor, heads etc.

 

Below, the view behind the two circuit boards with the tape transport assembly now visible. This now needs to be removed but the first step is to pull away the display unit from the front, taking with it those yellow and white cables.

 

 

 Once the display has been removed it clears the way to remove the tape transport assembly which carries the Tape Lifter amongst other things. The assembly is secured by five of those large countersunk Philips screws, but it's also held in place by cabling and (most importantly) a metal link between the assembly and a pair of cores fitting in solenoids mounted vertically above.

 

 Ideally this link needs to be unclipped whilst the assembly is still secured in place. It's held by a small circlip which can be removed by gently easing it away from its mating rod with a tiny screwdriver blade. Eventually the mechanism can be completely detached and examined. This involves unplugging the set of cables feeding the three heads.I'll summarise below what I found.

 

 Much to my surprise I found dried grease which had the tenacity of flexible superglue which explained the seized Tape Lift control lever.

I also noticed there was no capstan belt !! After hunting around I discovered what remained of it. Much like many VCRs of the same general period the rubber belt had melted into a glob or two of a very sticky gluey substance. One used to hear years ago that this was caused by ozone but, whatever it was, the glob proved that this type of rubber was totally unsuitable for its purpose.

Below is the new belt.

 I also found a fair bit of tape residue and some wear on the tape guides.

However, the first step was to sort out the seized Tape Lift metalwork.

Below are views of the two spring loaded levers, right and left.

These need to be detached by initially releasing the spring tension on each by pulley the end of the spring from its groove. Then removing the short bar through which screws fit into the tops of the shafts holding the levers in place. The levers can then be eased of the shafts from the gluey residue holding them in place.

Then each can be dismantled and cleaned. This should be done one at a time leaving the second one fully assembled for reference. Once the first has been cleaned and reassembled to match the other and completely free to move, the other should follow.

I used a tiny amount of copper-grease in the reassembly.
  

 

 Below, the pair of levers detached from the assembly and awaiting cleaning.

 

 

 Below, the levers use a circlip to hold the parts together. Unlike the average circlip this doesn't engage in a groove, but clamps the parts so that they are free to move without play. These can be removed by levering with a small screwdriver blade but I found them difficult to put back. I ground a circlip tool to fit the clip and you'll notice a wire to prevent accidentally firing the clip into the depths of the workshop to join other (lost) springy bit and pieces.

 

 

 

 The assembly now freed up and lubricated. The tape residue was cleaned away with paper soaked with isopropyl alcohol until no discolouration appeared on the paper. The heads looked relatively unworn after cleaning but wear on the guides was easy to fix by slackening securing screws and rotating the worn guides by about 45 degrees to present an unworn surface.

The tape lifting mechanism is now completely free and smooth. I'll wipe surplus grease away before refitting the assembly.

The new capstan drive belt arrived very promptly to complete the job. For reference the Teac belt is coded 553 469 2001 and is common to a number of Teac machines and, surprisingly was cheapest on Amazon, with even a free Sunday delivery with Prime. This is very convenient as I mustn't forget the reassembly procedure!!

 Here's a view of the rear plate of the tape transfer assembly with the capstan motor and small circuit board removed.

Notice the pencilled arrow which indicates where I found a couple of shims.

I guess these were fitted to fix the motor capstan to be precisely at 90 degrees to the pair of flywheels. Presumably this is necessary to keep the drive belt running true and positioned centrally without wandering..

 Now a view with the metal plate removed. The drive belt can now be fitted and the metal plate screwed back. The motor is then placed over the plate using a length of wire to hook the drive belt over the lower edge of the capstan.

Once in the correct position the motor can be secured to the metal plate ensuring it's orientated exactly as it was before removal so that the shims can be put back.

Then the flywheels can be turned by hand to check the drive belt positions itself correctly.

I've included an exploded view of the tape transfer assembly showing the correct drive belt position in relation to the capstan because there are two possible ways of fitting the motor in relation to the belt.

 

Before contining I tested a bunch of power supply capacitors and all measured OK.

Fitting the head assembly back into the chassis was quite easy but working out where all the cables went was't easy. Thankfully I managed to find the few hidden head connectors and nearly all the plugs were unique by way of pin numbers and connector colours. Where this wasn't the case I used the photographs I took when taking everything apart.

Once complete I checked the end result against the original pictures of the wiring, then turned on the power. Nothing untoward happened so I loaded a pair of reels, plugged in some headphones and played a recording. Everything seems to be OK.

 

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