The KDV-300 was my first cassette deck! Bought mine new in 1985 from a shop called Laskys! Cost me £120. It still works so I guess it was money well spent. Thanks for posting this great video, I guess it will only be a matter of time before I will have to boil it's belt!
Wow thanks for the tip. I've got a Technics deck here that I'm pretty sure has loose belts. I haven't pulled the cover yet to check, but if this turns out to be the case I'm going try boiling them. Great video by the way. I really enjoyed it.
Another great video! That blue wooden handle micro Phillips screwdriver that you have were like gold in our shop. they were bought from Sony, in Westwood Massachusetts .
To add even more grip to the belt, i take the capstan wheel out and polish the surface of it with PEEK metal polish to a mirror finish, it massively improves things.
Excellent video, just in time for me to fix the KD-V33 - it's the Euro edition of the same deck. Unfotunately, bathing the belts didn't help much, replaced two of the three with new ones. One hint: threading the main belt was much easier after removing the bottom cover.
Thanks for sharing the info, please do know that I have so much respect for you and the things you do are highly beneficial to me and countless people around the world, question is, must it be boiled using microwave or just any source of heat can do? And hey! Did I tell you that I also love the DJ skills you possess,not to mention the collection of tracks you featured....lol. Lastly thanks for sharing the rubber belt boiling trick secret
I'm repairing the very same model as we speak. Play doesn't engage all the way, and stop won't disengage the play function. I've torn it all apart and still trying to figure out what in the mechanism is preventing the play and stop from working together. My belts are tired too. I didn't know about the boiling water technique, just ordered fresh belts from a site. Capstan motor was also making a strange noise so I"m pulling it apart so i can lubricate those bearings. Oh joy.
Boiling belts, never to old to learn something it seems. I still have some 80's Technics decks in boxes I believe that I haven't used in like 15 years time. So I suspect the belts will be in the same state. So boiling them in water for 5 to 10 min would get them back working would be fantastic. As an experiment you should try and measure before and after boiling. As long as it doesn't turn into a cooking channel keep on going.
How could you physically tell the different type belts, real rubber vs the synthetic in order to know what can be and what can not be boiled? Love the videos!
Hello thanks for your channel. I have a little problem with a JVC tape deck. When I press play it plays for a few seconds and then the play switch kicks off. Any ideas? I presently have a little wedge of wood that I jam into the switch to keep it from tripping.
Notice anything unusual on that deck? +9 Db VU meters....for some reason. Also...why are the JVC cassette decks seemingly always backwards? They put the transport on the right
A quick note to all, I have purchased a few decks to tinker and or to restore them on Ebay and what I've observe is that some people do not know how to clean tape heads on a cassette deck, more so with the capstan shaft/pinch roller as people put the Q-tip on the side towards the head instead of the side going outwards where I see shredded cotton wrapped tightly around the shaft which is a pain in the butt. Is there an easier way to do this than what I am currently doing?
Great video. I’ve got a KD-A11 everything works fine but FF. Being told it was about a cracked gear but very difficult to dissemble that parts out for replacement. What do you think from your expertise? 🤓
great video, i have a question , mine is a kdv100 and it is a bit different what i want to know is since i dont have the belt to replace can i do the trick on this model ? thanks in advance
What trick was that? Boiling belt. Sure worth a try. Depends on what the belt is made of. Some regain elasticity others not. If not you will have to measure the belt and replace.
Lucky there, I usually find quite frequently by this point the belts are already starting to turn to goo or get so soft they fall apart. As far as being secretive, I have seen that alot and from my experience it has always boiled down to ego, and more importantly, job security...
Natural rubber belts this is a problem. The synthetic belts used on later model decks don't have that issue as a rule, and these ones are the best candidates for restoring in boiling water. At least that is what I have found. If they are really soft and stretchy, then they are most likely natural rubber.
The only decks I have ran into that didn't have a melted belt is two Akai units. One of them was a newer unit, CS-F12 which actually works fine, But the other one is a GXC-39D and it starts off playing fine but gets slow after a little bit of play time, it uses an AC motor. I had to disconnect the trip solenoid on that one because the counter belt is shot. I really dont use cassettes at all anymore, not since the 90s so I havent messed with any of them.
I have the exact deck. Mine plays back a hair fast and records a bit slow.. Would get stuck in record till i used a drop of belt dressing. Could a stretched belt cause the speed issue? Great trick tip! I need to do that on my kd-d30 too 👍
I wouldn't use it on belts. It can melt them, and that is not the goal, as that will stretch them out. The goal is to tighten them up a bit. Rubber renew is fine for pinch rollers and idler tires where you want to soften up the rubber.
Thanks for sharing the belt trick. 90% of everything I have learned. About a quarter of them were secretive about what they knew and would make me swear not to tell anyone else, especially the dicks that usually worked for the same company we worked for.
When I learned the belt trick it was totally by accident, as Leo wouldn't share anything. It just so happened that I walked into the lunch room and the microwave was going like crazy, and I wanted to heat something so I stopped it, and took out the mug and there was a belt boiling in in. I asked him about the belt, and he said it fixes them when they slip. OK, learned something new. Tried it myself, and it worked, and have been doing it ever since but I generally didn't tell people about it. Mainly because when I was in the business we would charge 50.00 to replace the belt. Well, technically I was replacing it right. I had to take it out, and put it back in again.
Yes, but it works, and I have tape decks of my own that I did this on 5 years ago and they are still working fine. It only works with some belts. If they have become really loose and the rubber is sticky don't waste your time. It works with neoprene and other synthetic rubber compounds. If you do't have access to a new belt this will quite often get you out of a bind. I am not about to spend 10.00, plus another 10.00 in freight to get a belt. Hell that would be cheap. I did order a new one for my Tascam DA40, and by the time I got it, 30.00 for a belt, but that one was a natural rubber belt and it was soft.
Hmmmm, how do you know whether "tape speed" is correct after belt "cooking"? There were used to be tapes out there with recorded Sine Wave(s), depending on manufacturer, for checkup. For Marantz anyway there were 3 kHz and 6 kHz Tapes out there (for two speed model is what I know for sure). You boil your belt but but how do you know all the rest? Thickness, transport quality, etc etc etc. You use Oscilloscope towards the end of Tape Deck repair or you go just by your own feeling? I am really interested in what you're going to say about it. Thanks!
I have a calibration tape. I use my technics rsm275 quatrz lock direct drive cassette deck that has been calibrated with a factory speed tape to record 440 Hz tapes that go in unknown quality decks. 440 is the music note "A" so a cheap guitar tuner can be used to verify speed. And yes boiling belts works great on slipping belts, not melted belts. They work better than many of the crap belts sold on eBay whose thickness varies and produce high wow and flutter.
I am having a problem with my KD-V200! It has a tape mechanism identical to the KD-V300 here - mine is exhibiting a lot of wow and flutter - I think maybe it's the take up clutch. I purchased the service manual, and it doesn't give any help about what to do about wow and flutter with the KD-V200 Could you help?
Does anyone know what belts these decks need? Just ordered a deck but first thing im gonna do is clean everything and replace the belts. Thanks in advance.
Boiling belts... you bodge artist Ha ha :-D, just leg pulling :-D. I have been very nasty in the past, if the belt was slightly too slack and there was no chance of getting one, i would remove the motor screws and use a tiny rats tail file to elongate the holes to pull the motor back 1mm. Nasty but it works, i always told the owner, they didn't give a dam as long as it worked.
Of course there’s a little project box just for that MP3 player on flea bay under “Clear MP3 player PCB enclosure plastic USB DIY kit 10 pcs. $9.99”; no doubt by someone in China using Google translate to produce this Chinglish keyword jargon mess. 🤪 I don’t buy anything there, but it is good for a laugh or two!
I have just the material for the case. Spare parts from a little speaker box that I converted to a stereo 2 speaker bluetooth. The second speaker. I still have the box.
