Update: took it from storage, powered on and face the same problem, same mechanical sound. Ordered a belt set, some fiddling comes next week. Thanks for this very helpfull video. Cheers 👍🇳🇱

@@Plons0Nard good luck!

Belts are in. Tomorrow I will try to be as good natured as you were during your repair. Cheers 👍🇳🇱

Thanks! Coincidentally I was just watching a spares or repair 740 on eBay and decided not to go for it. Lack of features and no Dolby S meant I would only be buying to repair and sell. I wouldn't use it. The pinch roller really sorted out the tape path on this, I had a wobble with one tape j was using for testing as it had no top end. Turned out the tape was just crap 😅

@@pwrestoration Hahaha that happens, Just for reference though the 740 is an excellent playback deck with the recordings done on the Sony (assuming I didn't use S NR) the mids are a but more pronounced on it and sounds a bit "fuller" however with an S encoded tape, switching the 740 to Dolby B seems to work well (S was designed that way unlike C which really needed another deck with C to playback correctly) but yes the 611S for the money is a fantastic deck in my opinion, and the single capstan isn't an issue :D

Hope you get it sorted!

Generally the motors are always fine, it's the belts that cause the issue with these, then secondly the pinch rollers which cause tape chewing and skewing - the skewing leads to poor sound particularly loss of treble and clarity. Good luck!

Yep, it's really common. You'll have to unscrew the mainboard, and then it's held down with a few plastic clips you need to squeeze. You'll see under the plug if the solder points are cracked. Symptoms of this are the auto cal not working properly, and also you can hear the previous tracks under the one you just recorded. No need to touch the transport. You'll need to remove the backplate though.

Hi! Was it playing at the correct speed before your belt swap or was it broken when you started? If it was fine before, check your belt routing and belt sizes. If it wasn't, it's just a simple speed adjustment. The hole on the back of the motor is where to adjust the speed, it has a little rubber cap with a slit. You'll need a 1mm flat screwdriver.

I didn't suffer that problem I'm afraid, I always have an eye on eBay for these so maybe in the future. Generally if the door is stuck open it can only be a few things - do you have one with that issue?

Gary, I'd say that from what I can work out there your tape isn't playing / rewinding / fast forwarding and keeping good alignment. Therefore when you use the tape somewhere else, it's 'tight?' If that's what you mean generally it's a pinch roller issue, whereas the pinch roller is more rounded or solid than it should be, thus misalignment occurs inside the cassette itself. Hope that helps!

@@pwrestoration that’s great - would the pinch roller also make the sound wobble on playback and record? I suppose if the tape isn’t winding properly because of the punch roller, then the playback and record will wobble - thanks again - I’ll order a pinch roller and see how it goes :)

@@in_the_moment Yup, exactly that. It's called tape skew and I imagine you're losing treble off playback too? However if it's a 'speed' wobble it could be that your capstan needs a clean and reoil. Otherwise called wow/flutter It's very common when pinch rollers die off. Good luck!

I'll tell you exactly what's happened here buddy. When you remove the black plastic cover panel (with the light inside that shines through your tape) the next thing you remove is a black plastic arm, with a cog on it that touches each reel. The arm moves left or right through friction, touches the appropriate reel, and either runs the take up reel or in rewind mode rewinds the tape. If you lube the axle this sits on too much, it reduces the friction on the arm and it won't move correctly. Pull the arm off (it's on with a circlip), clean out ALL lube from its axle and where it sits. I reckon this will solve your problem. It's viewed here at 5 mins 48: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d9GjabKp1tmvXas.htmlsi=NJfA3ssu2pP2ATOq Sound quality is Deffo better on these decks with new pinch rollers, they suffer from tape skew sometimes otherwise and high tones are affected.

Double check you've got the ribbon cable in correctly from the front panel to the main board and the display

@@pwrestoration ok, thanks

I think I know what you mean, however I did not remove the door and loading mechanism anymore than what you see in the video. When rebuilding I simply let the door mech open, and the cam was as you saw it in the video. It has a spring under it so when you are refitting the board over the top of it you can feel a little pressure. Does this make sense? If you are struggling I would suggest trying to line it up exactly as per the video, as it did not offer me any problems from memory. Regards

@@pwrestoration Thank you very much. This is very helpful and I shall heed your advice.

Thank you and sorry to trouble you again. Your demonstration is extremely useful, which I am viewing repeatedly, and it is why I am encouraged to seek your advice again. At 16:47, where the gear loading cam can be readily pushed down (to open the cassette holder), the ridge (like a pointer but possibly a switch-trigger, next to the highest point on the semicircular cam), is exactly away from the loading roller, and I wonder if this is the alignment this gear-loading cam needs to be in on assembly. I would also be grateful to learn how did you re-align it (from the stuck position as at 16:30). Apology for troubling you.

@@eliasragi7472 I think I understand. The small piece sticking out is a switch activation point, these switches detect whether the door is open or closed. In the next scene you will notice one I melted slightly. It touches onto one of these two small black microswirches. How I aligned it was to simply turned it manually, whilst looking at the switches. It must be in one position when the door is closed - against the closed switch. Then when the door is opened, it will rotate to the open switch. My advice would be open the door, rotate the sprung wheel by hand to where it would be activating the open switch on the attached board, then reassemble. If you're in the UK I could possibly carry out this repair for you.

Thanks to your advice, I am nearer. May I also ask: At 17:15, is switch 1004 opening or closing? In the service manual (TC-K590), it is given only as switch, with no indication of function. Also interesting, while the manual gives directions on aligning the boss on the mode cam to the notch on the assist motor cam, it gives no guidance on aligning the door-opening gear mechanism. Another interesting aside: given the genius of design of all the myriad mechanical and electronic components, the designers may have not foreseen the whole is as good only as the shelf-life of two rubber bands. Having identified the switch, looking at the loading cam as at 16:34 and with the door open, which direction would the cam rotate, or which switch would it hit first so as to close the door? On the same theme, at what hour would the switch-tripping ridge be aligned? I live in Devon and, at this stage, I am taking the task in the spirit of a supreme DIY challenge, though keeping your kind offer in mind. Your demonstration is what makes KZfaq revolutionary especially for niche-end DIY; inconceivable only few years ago. Forgive me for troubling you and thank you again. @@pwrestoration

Yes, a fair few - and I would say the Sony deck pips them all day long. Perhaps it needs a service? Give the heads a wipe over in the meantime. But one thing I will say is that sometimes tapes that sound great on one deck can sound different on others, for lots of reasons. Have a go recording on the Sony deck and playing that back. That could be your issue - simply transferability of tapes between them.

I've not noticed that before, however it does sometimes take a while to settle down. It does state that in the manual though. My only thought with that is the caps on the record head power side could be a bit old by 2023. The only time I've ever had problems with the cal function has been when someone's messed with the bias and the record / playback levels on the mainboard. That's a pain to sort out too 😅

@@pwrestoration lol tell me about it!

@@dean6816 if you've got that issue just go through it step by step. Put a signal into the deck and you'll need to monitor by oscilloscope. 400hz for playback levels. Then it's just a case of recording it, and monitoring the results through the third head. Don't use higher than 400hz for signal volume levels it all gets a bit freaky in the higher tones otherwise

@@pwrestoration I had issues setting the calibration tones. Not sure if I done it right but I kept adjusting the pot on the level, then playing it back until it read 400 hz on my multi meter. Thanks for the advice, I'm a massive cassette addict lol.

My deck is a Teac V7000, one of them anyway lol

The tactile switches on the circuit board behind the buttons will have developed corrosion. There's no real solution bar replacement, but they're about £2 for 10! They are wired sort of in series and some use a common earth, so if one fails it can affect others downstream. Always better to replace all in a oner. You'll have to remove the board from behind the front panel and measure the dimensions of the ones fitted, they're readily available on eBay and a simple four point solder-in job!

@@pwrestoration Thanks for that and appreciate the info, The 580’s called me a Liar now, It’s starting to do what it did before I put it away, It sounds fine at first and then the Audio gets muffled after a few seconds, I have cleaned the Heads but not with IPA as I didn’t have any at the time, Any suggestions for why it starts fine and then gets muffled after a few seconds?

@@AJComputerServicesUK I would say the pinch roller could be causing the tape to skew. Give it a change for a few quid!

@@pwrestoration Ok and thanks for that, Would a drop of IPA on a Cotton Bud make any difference do you think & swap it out if not?

@@pwrestorationHope you don’t mind but I’ve sent you an Email with a few pictures attached!

You raise a good point, this was one of my first videos and I've learned a lot since. I'll do better with showing repairs when I can!

Your wish is my command Peter, just uploaded another video of a rotary encoder fix!

@@pwrestoration Cool. I will check it out. And one of these days will take out my TC-K615S. Do you know what the difference is vs tck611s?

Did I not? Good spot!

Not sure, I'd rather have this and Dolby S!

@@pwrestoration i had a tck-970es and didn’t use Dolby when recording at all, Yes it removes hiss but also sounds, so unless i record some classical music with lower volumes it’s rather useless and gimmicky i think. On pop and rock music it’s destroying more than fixing. I guess that the Japanese models just had to have it because of those reasons. And seeing it on European midrange models but not top of the line ones just underline that it’s true

@@ingenfestbrems Dolby S wasn’t available during production of those decks. The TC-K555esJ has Dolby S but you can tell it was rushed because there is no indication lamp on the display for Dolby S and they just went ahead and defeated the illumination of Dolby B and C since S didn’t have an indication on the display.

@@VintageAudioTech s came out in1989. And the 970es vas made from 1990 to 1992, and replaced by 990es with also didn’t have Dolby S….

Sony was late to the party maybe

Bargain!

@@pwrestoration thanks i new it was good due to dolby s, did not know they are worth 200plus. i turned it on, and its making a whining noise when not even playing a tape, sounds like motor noise

all lights up ok, and eject works ok, google say to strip down and clean and maybe replace capstan motor

@@lumsdot quite common. The motor runs constantly and can wear bushes. Leave it on for 24 hours and let it run, sometimes they quieten themselves

@@lumsdot I have another video about noisy motors on them