My Akai GXC38D (dolby) HiFi cassette deck. Pinch wheel had gone all naff quite a few years ago and I've only now got round to fixing it up. Probably more for nostalgic reasons as most of the music is now on the PC / ext HDD but there are few live broadcast concerts on tape.
Got a replacement wheel that was almost identical and with some fettling will fit.
Old wheel on the left, replacement in carrier on the right:
Reassembled into the deck. Applied power at reduced voltage (90V) to allow the capacitors in the circuits to "re-form" This is a vital step as just plugging into full mains will probably blow the lot as it's not been powered for 15+ years
VU meters were reading full scale so I treated all the switches to switch cleaner. Fixed that. Volts up to 150 and still fine. Bought up to 200 and tried a cassette. Clean audio on the headphone output.
Left the deck to soak at 150V It'll need this for several hours to be sure the capacitors are OK.
Deck on soak:
I won't case it up until I've run it throuh the HiFi amp to check for wow and flutter as the belts are not quite flat having been standing and may need replacing. Still looks promising.
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History is much like an endless waltz: The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever.
However history will change with my coronation - Mariemaia Khushrenada
