Freebird Posted October 2, 2007 #1 Posted October 2, 2007 Cleaning and Repairing a First Gen Tape Deck Thanks to Red Baron for this excellent article A few weeks ago I did a tour of the northern US and put about 7000 miles on my 1990 Yamaha Venture Royale. During this tour, my tape deck "ate" one of my tapes. I like to listen to the tapes while on the road when out of range of local radio stations. I have several tapes of classical music as well as my favorite vocalist, Babs, Barbara Streisand. Not being able to determine the cause of this failure while on the road, I waited until I returned home to affect a repair of the unit. I inquired of this group for advice. Thanks for the responses. Most of you thought it just needed cleaning. I went a little further than that. Since the unit was 18 years old, and I use it often, (I have 82K miles on the old girl) I suspected the belts may be worn or had failed as well as needing a good cleaning and lubricating. As I do all my own maintenance, with the help and advice from this and other web sites as well as service manuals, I thought you might be interested in a short "How to" of what I did. This unit now seems to perform as it should, i.e., doesn't "eat" tapes anymore. First thing I did was research belt availability. I found belts on the web at a place called Vintage Electronics in Corvallis, Oregon. I needed three belts. Part # SCQ4.0 --- $3.10 Part # SCQ6.5 --- $2.10 Part # SCQ10.0 --- $2.55 I ordered them, used PayPal to affect the payment and received them four days later. Great Service http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image001.jpg Next thing I did, after receiving the belts, was to remove the unit from the bike. The tape deck can be removed from the radio/tape deck holder by removing one hex nut from the bottom of the unit. You will also need to unplug the power cord. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image006.jpg After freeing the unit from the holder, remove the top and bottom cases. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image009.jpg After removing the cases, the belts can be seen. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image013.jpg The "V" shaped piece must be removed to expose the belts for changing. This can be accomplished by removing three screws and lifting the "V" shaped piece very carefully. There is a spring on the right side that will impede removal. Just lift around the spring leg. It's easy. You can do it. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image016.jpg OK, you're there. Remove all three belts. You will need to remove the large wheel on the left to access the belt beneath it. Note their position carefully before removing. A sketch may help. Now, before installing the new belts, lift the large wheels straight up and put a drop of oil on their shafts. They will lift straight up and out of the unit. Just one drop of light oil is all that is needed. 3 in One oil or equivalent. Reinstall the shafts/wheels into their respective positions. Now install all three new belts. The belt under the left wheel will have to be installed before reinstalling that wheel. When satisfied that all three belts are tracking correctly, reinstall the "V" shaped piece with the three screws removed earlier. Turn the unit over. Now we want to clean the rubber wheels and the pickup "head". I used a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to affect this cleaning. Dip one end of the swab in alcohol and use it to carefully clean the head and wheels. Use the clean end of the swab to wipe off residue the alcohol loosens from the wheels. Remove any excess oil from the ends of the shafts oiled from the other side. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image020.jpg Now we can reinstall the top and bottom cases. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image023.jpg After installing the case pieces and making sure that all the screws are secure, install the assembly back into the radio/tape deck holder and reinstall into the bike. Unit should function like new. No more "surging" from loose or worn belts. No more tape "eating" caused by dirty drive wheels. Hope this has been of some value to anyone doing their own maintenance. Red Baron Addendum: Do NOT over lubricate. ENSURE that "belts" are NOT "twisted" . If the belts are "twisted" the speed will not be correct. These are square cross section belts and MUST have the same "flat" of the belt touching in the groove on the wheels. Just look closely at the belt. If there is a twist in the belt between wheels, it's not going to work correctly.
Freebird Posted February 7, 2009 Author #2 Posted February 7, 2009 (edited) Just to update this article a bit. Here is the info for Vintage Electronics. It appears that the belts have gone up a bit but that they still have them. https://www.vintage-electronics.net bob@vintage-electronics.net Edited August 18, 2019 by Freebird
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