60 Yr Old Vacuum Tube Reel-To-Reel Recorder/Player 4 Channel Stereo - Sony TC-500 [4K]

1964 Stereo Reel-To-Reel Recorder/Player with Stereo Tube Amplifier. Sony TC-500 Tapecorder. Picked this up from a man who said he thought it had a motor problem and had a video showing it starting to turn but stopping. When I picked it up we could not open the unit up to check it, but we bought it anyway and took a chance.
Let's take a look at this vintage stereo technology and if we can get it to work again.
See the checklist which appears when status changes, for tracking what is discovered that needs addressing in Red, followed by Green when resolved.
NOTE: This is not instruction, it is for entertainment for people like me who enjoy watching projects and the experiences gained. If you attempt to do any of the things in this video you are at your own risk. I am using special tech-bench safety equipment not detailed here so don't take for granted you can just plug these old items in safely without them being checked and repaired correctly. Check out the link below to Mr Carlson's Lab video below.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND REFERENCES:
[note: am in no way representing how these folks have shown doing these things - I don't even think they would approve.]
Thanks to shango066 for championing the approach of "fix it first", before mass re-capping. See shango066 for many examples of that approach.
@shango066
Awesome discussion of bench safety including variacs and isolation transformers by Mr Carlson's Lab (highly recommended):
• Tech Tips Tuesday, Iso...
‪@MrCarlsonsLab‬
Modification method for a commercial Tripp Lite isolation transformer for tech-bench use by Todd Harrison, his channel is called ToddFun:
• ToddFun.com: Isolation...
‪@ToddFun‬
Camera: Canon G7X Mark III
Mic: Rode Micro
Video Editing Software: Power Director
Video Editor: just me
People interested in the following topics may be interested in the subject matter of this video: 1960s radios, tube radio repair, tube radio restoration, vacuum tube radio recapping, radio recapping, valve radio, Vintage Radio, antique radio, old radio repair, vintage radio, shango066, mr carlson, radio repair and restoration, 1950s radio restoration, radio restoration videos, vintage sony, vintage stereo components, reel to reel, tc-500a

[@MarcKoser-e4g]

Fascinating video! Your fast-forward knob/lever is a work of art. I recently restored a solid-state Toshiba with similar controls. Replaced belt with a Culligan water filter O-ring & at least 38 e-caps. I can picture dozens of young Japanese women assembling these machines.

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks! The O-ring substitution was ingenious. Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoyed the video.

[@Z2hstudio]

Very wonderful video, I admire your meticulousness and patience and your attitude of taking any small problem seriously. I cleaned and lubricated my Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder too. It has a similar oil filling hole structure of this TC-500. But I didn’t understand its function at the time, so I disassembled the whole motor and saw that the front and rear self-aligning bearings were wrapped by a circle of sponges. The oil filling holes led to these sponges. The sponges were responsible for storing a certain amount of oil and supplying it continuously to the copper powder sintered bearings, Very clever design.

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks very much for the comment! And also for letting us know about those sponges, good info to know.

[@thomasrose7713]

I have this very model. I’m going to have to watch this video a few times and I’ll be back to comment some more.🤣 looking very forward to this. thank you for taking the time to post this

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks for the note. Good luck. Do keep in touch. I may be able to give you a few tips that aren't all in the video. One of the biggest tips is the location of the motor oiler tubes which I show near the end. The oiling of the capstan bushing has more to it than I showed. Thanks again for the comment and a thumbs up. :)

[@atmylab]

Great unit, worth restoring; I have a Sears Silvertone reel-to-reel that has tubes, the sound is robust and clear.

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks. Not bad for 60 years old.

[@JacGoudsmit]

One other possible improvement might be to replace the pressure pads that push the tape against the heads.
Thanks for posting! Great video.

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks. That's true about the pads. Don't have any replacements on hand. The ones I have are for cassettes and for 8tracks, neither of which are appropriate. Will keep an eye out for them. Thanks for the comment.

[@knifeswitch5973]

Your back! Came out swinging taking on a R2R right out of the gate. Good video

[@PracticallyFixed]

Haha! Thanks. Yeah we had some issues to deal with but all better now. Thanks again.

[@pauljames5914]

That was my first stereo tape deck in the 80s! Hard to replace the worn head but she sounded great!

[@PracticallyFixed]

Thanks. Hope this brought back some fond memories. Happy new year.

[@pauljames5914]

@@PracticallyFixed it sure did! Brought me back to the evening I had just replaced the head , had a little 420 and listened to my dion and the Belmonts tape. Early 80s. Thanks for showing me the output tubes. I was thinking 6BM8s but Sony wasn't being cheap and actually put another 12AX7 ahead of the 6AQ5. I built an awesome 6AQ5 pp stereo amp using grundig output transformers.

[@TechGorilla1987]

I was jut gifted a VERY old RCA reel to reel that, from what I have discerned is from old educational tapes provided by a company in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I have yet to even power it up. It need a weight belt to lift.

[@PracticallyFixed]

They are heavy aren't they? Thanks for the note.

[@Mikexception]

Capacitors are produced with tolerances. I noticed that while very old capacitors tend to have values above and use bigger values modern use below margins and use lower values which usualy leads to significant difference. I see always people try to match values not produced today with near by lower modern value and assume it is ok. it In sound sensitive circuit like speakers and tuned tape recorders filetrs I would advice to measure capacitors and by combination equal the original value which is written on capacitor (if is is original and matches schematic).