Thanks very much. This was my first tape deck in the '70s and I recorded a lot of music with it. I still have the tapes and last month found an old deck at the Thrift Store. This will go a long way to get my up and running to listen to those old tapes.
An excellent video presentation and Sony always sounded good, even the simple one, like this. Sometimes it's better to have a simple equipment than complex one, like this one, simple to up keep, simple to repair.
I always "freshened up" rubber idlers and pinch rollers with just letting them run, without a tape, and then lightly using some 600+ grit sandpaper on them, then cleaning up the wheel and capstan well with IPA afterwards. Glad it behaved and you got it back into good working service!
Leaving the burned out lightbulb is just more than my persnickety old heart can stand! I have an old Dokorder that I need to drag out and get working again. I just love the old reel to reels.
In addition to what I've mentioned here, be sure to clean out old grease from the various mechanisms. They are 90% of the reason why an old one what's been sitting won't do much of anything.
The motto which some customers fail to follow is simple: *_"unless you know what you're doing when it comes to an item of vintage electronics, have the proper equipment, skills, relevant service documentation (e.g. Riders / Sams manuals) and experience, don't attempt to fix it yourself, leave it well alone; if something does go wrong, send it to a technician/workshop for professional repair if possible"_* 😎 Nice repair there Jordan. Hopefully it will last another 100,000 km (however many miles that is) from now.😇
Sony in later models added a variable back tension arm which negated the need for erase and rec/pb head pad, which is something I don't particularly like.
Nice tutorial. Thanks Broseph! What oil to use on teac motors? They have fill spouts. I was going to use lightweight oil like I use for hair clippers, but looking for a proper solution.
I had to remove the feet on mine to get it to fit in my Fisher Regent Stereo cabinet... it only has 6" of clearance with the top closed so it sits on shims just enough as to not sit on the motor cage
Thanks for posting this! I have the same unit and I am trying to record with mine, but the left channel input is scratchy and weak. I've tried working the jack to get rid of any possible oxidation, but it seems like it may not be a physical connection issue. Is it hard to freshen up the transistors/preamps on this unit?
Thanks for sharing. I have the same model 250. I have one channel out. I think the left what piece doI need to order for it? The head? Or do I need to check for cold solder joints first?
Check for bad connections at the head. If that looks good, touch the head connections while in play. If you get a buzz out of both speakers but only one channel is playing music the head is bad. If you only get hum out of the side that plays thr play back amplifier needs to be troubleshot.
I just acquired a 250, have worked over 120 of the 366 and 377 models, they are much easier to work on. The 250 will not change speeds mechanically for some reason.....not sure how the speed rod is held in place going from one speed to the other.
Check power supplies against schematic feeding audio sections. If ok, check mode switch attached to play/stop cam for broken shaft or bad wafer. Signal tracer is really required along with test tape of consistent tone
Would things have been better if SONY used the techniques they used in their BETA VCRs which would result in a much better audio with a wider bandwidth you know from 20Hz to 22.050Khz
To me, the owner should have got you to fix it from the start, he does not have the skills to do it himself. The pinch roller came up a treat :-D, it looks fresh and grippy.
@@oddmirage1740 if you have an analog aux in, use an rca to 1/8" stereo male adapter to get the sound into your mac/pc then use something like audacity to capture it.
@@JordanPier Thanks for the quick reply. The Sony here is a TC-105. It plays perfectly for about 30 minutes, then slows way down. I also have a TC-230, with the nice walnut-veneer case. That motor wouldn't start at all. Thankfully, someone removed the vent-screen on the bottom, so I could lift the unit up and start it, by giving the motor-fan a little spin! But it ran slow all the time. Finally, I swapped the capacitor (and vent-screen) from a TC-230 parts machine, and now the motor self-starts every time, and runs perfectly - for about 10 minutes before it slows way down! By the way, when I was still 'kick-starting' that motor, I found I was able to start it backwards! 🙂
this technician forgot something very important in relation to this type of circuit but i'm not going to tell ya'all what it was because I want all the TC-250A's to myself
Often the best way to make the community grow and learn how to fix these is to share findings and faults. Knowledge never gets passed on when it dies with people who don't share it.
Thanks very much. This was my first tape deck in the '70s and I recorded a lot of music with it. I still have the tapes and last month found an old deck at the
Thrift Store. This will go a long way to get my up and running to listen to those old tapes.
You did a great job. It looks like a solid state version of the TC350.
Sheesh! Fixed a zillion of these, those motor caps started going bad and slowing down (and puking wax) back in the 70’s. Very nice job sir!
An excellent video presentation and Sony always sounded good, even the simple one, like this. Sometimes it's better to have a simple equipment than complex one, like this one, simple to up keep, simple to repair.
I always "freshened up" rubber idlers and pinch rollers with just letting them run, without a tape, and then lightly using some 600+ grit sandpaper on them, then cleaning up the wheel and capstan well with IPA afterwards. Glad it behaved and you got it back into good working service!
Leaving the burned out lightbulb is just more than my persnickety old heart can stand! I have an old Dokorder that I need to drag out and get working again. I just love the old reel to reels.
Damn, thanks Jordan for posting this. I have a few of these in storage that I wanted to learn on before working on a few nicer units I have.
In addition to what I've mentioned here, be sure to clean out old grease from the various mechanisms. They are 90% of the reason why an old one what's been sitting won't do much of anything.
The motto which some customers fail to follow is simple: *_"unless you know what you're doing when it comes to an item of vintage electronics, have the proper equipment, skills, relevant service documentation (e.g. Riders / Sams manuals) and experience, don't attempt to fix it yourself, leave it well alone; if something does go wrong, send it to a technician/workshop for professional repair if possible"_* 😎
Nice repair there Jordan. Hopefully it will last another 100,000 km (however many miles that is) from now.😇
Just got one off Craigslist today working and non working. So Two good to see this video of same model I got.
Excellent as always
Excellent troubleshooting.
Sony in later models added a variable back tension arm which negated the need for erase and rec/pb head pad, which is something I don't particularly like.
Nice tutorial. Thanks Broseph! What oil to use on teac motors? They have fill spouts. I was going to use lightweight oil like I use for hair clippers, but looking for a proper solution.
Mo98 with an oil syringe to get it in the motors.
I had to remove the feet on mine to get it to fit in my Fisher Regent Stereo cabinet... it only has 6" of clearance with the top closed so it sits on shims just enough as to not sit on the motor cage
Thanks for posting this! I have the same unit and I am trying to record with mine, but the left channel input is scratchy and weak. I've tried working the jack to get rid of any possible oxidation, but it seems like it may not be a physical connection issue. Is it hard to freshen up the transistors/preamps on this unit?
This one's no fun to service the electronics
The rubber idler wheels and the pinch roller - did you clean and regrease their bearing surfaces?
Done by prev. Person
Thanks for sharing. I have the same model 250. I have one channel out. I think the left what piece doI need to order for it? The head? Or do I need to check for cold solder joints first?
Check for bad connections at the head.
If that looks good, touch the head connections while in play. If you get a buzz out of both speakers but only one channel is playing music the head is bad.
If you only get hum out of the side that plays thr play back amplifier needs to be troubleshot.
18:11 Just look at the size of that flywheel. That thing is huge. It's probably 2 pounds.
Another one saved from the refuge pile.
I just acquired a 250, have worked over 120 of the 366 and 377 models, they are much easier to work on. The 250 will not change speeds mechanically for some reason.....not sure how the speed rod is held in place going from one speed to the other.
I have a sony tc 255 and there is no audio play or record do you have ideal where to start looking to troubleshoot?
Check power supplies against schematic feeding audio sections. If ok, check mode switch attached to play/stop cam for broken shaft or bad wafer. Signal tracer is really required along with test tape of consistent tone
Would things have been better if SONY used the techniques they used in their BETA VCRs which would result in a much better audio with a wider bandwidth you know from 20Hz to 22.050Khz
To me, the owner should have got you to fix it from the start, he does not have the skills to do it himself.
The pinch roller came up a treat :-D, it looks fresh and grippy.
What cables do I need in order for me to record to my Mac book or pc?
Depends on what inputs your mac or pc has, whether analog or digital
@@JordanPier it’s usbc, hdmi, and headphone auxiliary Jack
@@oddmirage1740 if you have an analog aux in, use an rca to 1/8" stereo male adapter to get the sound into your mac/pc then use something like audacity to capture it.
the motor speed will improve once it gets oiled
The repair probably cost more that the reel to reel.
I have one of these that makes awful garbled noises when attempting to play a tape. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing that?
I would guess is the rubber idler wheel. No grip. This is what I am investigating now.
Some Sonys use a 250 volt motor capacitor. My Sony has a 1.5MF/300 volt motor capacitor. Will a 250 volt work?
Typically no. Always stick with the rated voltage, not lower
@@JordanPier How about a 450 volt?
@@sunbeam8866 that would work fine
@@JordanPier Thanks for the quick reply. The Sony here is a TC-105. It plays perfectly for about 30 minutes, then slows way down. I also have a TC-230, with the nice walnut-veneer case. That motor wouldn't start at all. Thankfully, someone removed the vent-screen on the bottom, so I could lift the unit up and start it, by giving the motor-fan a little spin! But it ran slow all the time. Finally, I swapped the capacitor (and vent-screen) from a TC-230 parts machine, and now the motor self-starts every time, and runs perfectly - for about 10 minutes before it slows way down!
By the way, when I was still 'kick-starting' that motor, I found I was able to start it backwards! 🙂
Those feet look like they came from a turntable.
Sony and their bad motor run caps....
this technician forgot something very important in relation to this type of circuit but i'm not going to tell ya'all what it was because I want all the TC-250A's to myself
Often the best way to make the community grow and learn how to fix these is to share findings and faults.
Knowledge never gets passed on when it dies with people who don't share it.