Sony C20 Betamax problem

[tiv48]

when i say friction pad i mean the felt like stuff between the cog and the plastic body, this allows the pendulum to swing left to right but still be free to turn the take up spools, the cog should turn faily easly but not freely if its contaminated it gets hard to turn and reduces torque to the hubs it was very common on the c20 and other models that used the same chassis
rob t

[tiv48]

we used to have a service cassette that was see through with no tape in side this let you see what was happening, it could be that the cog on the idler is not contacting the spool because af a lack of friction
rob t

[Skywave]

Thanks for all your reponses. I've had to leave this job for a few days since some other (unforeseen) matters have arisen that are taking all of my available time. But I will get back to it - and report accordingly.

Al. / April 12th. //

[Skywave]

Date = April 20.
Right, having sorted out a few domestic issues (for the time being, at least) which arose without warning, I've re-visited this Sony Betamax machine.

Removed the pendulum, removed feed and take-up spool hubs & dismantled the spool drive motor ass'y. in order to examine all of these items for signs of wear, debris / dirt / contamination. I could not find anything that I was unhappy about (based on my basic knowledge of these machines).

Another search of the 'Net and the aforementioned Site failed to indicate further likely areas of investigation.

Al.

[Skywave]

Yes Jamie, you could well be right there.

This old VCR was acquired many moons ago for the simple purpose of transferring the contents of a large number of Betamax recordings to VHS. Since then (which was many years ago) it has been sitting idle. Now although I still have a large pile of Betamax tapes, these days when I do need to make a recording, (which in itself is infrequent), I use one of the several VHS machines in the house. Consequently - and for all intents and purposes - this old Betamax machine is simply redundant (Hmm - I know the feeling! :@). It was only because I 'tripped' over it a few weeks back that I simply switched it on to see if it worked (curiosity, etc.) - and we know the rest. My original hope was that 'the fix' was going to be 'something simple' (I'm an uncurable optimist) - but apparently not - well, not with my very restricted knowledge of servicing VCRs of any make or type.

Anyway, I'll leave this problem to one side for the moment - just in case anything relevant arises - but I don't intend to spend too much further time on it - nor £.

Al.