TRYING To Repair My Aiwa CS-600U

EastHelp posted:

As of 7:30 PM Eastern Time -- over an hour and fifteen minutes ago, it seems -- I took out what seem to be the seven screws that fasten the front and the rear panels of my Aiwa CS-600U. Six of the screws are external, part of the perimeter of the lower 70% or so of the rear panel of the CS-600. The seventh screw is from the lower centre of the battery bay.  However, the front and rear panels aren't coming apart for access to the interior.  I have no experience in opening or repairing boomboxes, as I have stated or alluded to repeatedly here on Stereo2Go. But right now I am trying to repair the jammed tape-heads mechanism of the cassette deck that the portable stereo was shipped to me with.  I have been receiving much urging and some coaching from some members of BoomBoxery.com, but no-one seems to be answering my messages for the past hour or so. (Sigh)  I know that this website is filled with members asking for this and for that -- and not always getting an answer, let alone a near-instant one or a pleasing one -- but what do I do now?

 

Well if you can wait a couple of weeks until I am fully moved I'll open mine in a video so you can see how it should be done and just 2 days ago here is my latest pic of my new storage shelves in where I am moving to and you can see on the far Left your model or mine Aiwa CS-600U that I think need new belts for the cassette deck which I will be fixing

Thanks for the reply, James. At least someone seems to be looking in on a flustered, would-be boombox-repairer.

Hvae you tried opening the tape deck door then pulling it apart

Some pic would help..

I remember on first opening my 600 that the case was held together fairly firmly with some taped tabs, if its important i could open mine and document...

Thanks for all your replies, guys. And, T-Ster, thanks for your suggestion! That sounds quite helpful. I think (grin here) that I'd really appreciate your re-opening your own "The Case Of The Missing Hours Of Non-Repairing Contentment With The CS-600" -- er, Aiwa case.

To be honest, folks, I've managed to open up the CS-600U fully, thanks largely to the instructing, the encouraging -- and perhaps also the goading -- of some members of (ahem) BoomBoxery.com. In fact, let me try and add a photograph of the 'splayed stereo:

^{Image Courtesy Of Aiwa Electronics Co., Inc. (Just kidding: it's mine, it's mine, it's mine!)}

This is an overhead or "looking down" photograph of the cassette-deck mechanism of the CS-600U; it would be a "head on" or "straight on" shot if the now-halved unit were (somehow) upright.

I earlier posted this picture, along with several others, on the BoomBoxery 'site. Hopefully this photo' is somewhat clearer than the other, grainy ones that I posted here on Stereo2Go in times past. This image is one of several pictures that I've taken -- all of this here Aiwa -- in recent days with a Nokia Lumia smartphone that, well, belongs to a relative of mine. It's a decidedly newer-technology 'phone than is my Samsung and it has a decidedly better built-in camera that I think that I've started to learn to use after some false, bad-photography starts.

What I would so appreciate, folks, is a good photograph -- or a good video clip -- of the cassette-deck mechanism of an Aiwa CS-600 showing the properly installed tape-deck belts. Or, at the least, a nice photograph of the tape-deck belts alone. The topmost tape-deck component on the CS-600 -- obviously the one with the cassette-deck keys attached -- is dauntingly rich with cogs, wheels, notches, levers, scary-tiny springs, etc. I dread making a mistake in trying to unscrew the topmost cassette-deck component and trying to lift it off so as to get at the tape-deck belts -- or whatever's left of them -- to install new ones. Don't want any springs or other tiny, easy-to-lose parts taking off for some other planet -- or for some unfamiliar corner of my room -- if I touch something the wrong way.

So, T-Ster, or anyone else, if you could ...

So, here is the Aiwa strip down:

Switches removed ready to open. Make sure box is unplugged.

Upon opening you can see the cassette mech in front of you.

Remove the four screwss as presented in the red circles, remove only these, put them in a little box or something. I have a little compartmentalised hobby box, its labelled 1-18 so i can see which screws were removed first, second etc.

Once those four screws are removed the deck will lift out in the direction shown, you will need to tilt it up as you lift. Nearest the top of the cassette in the red circles you can see the deck is mounted underneath the plastic tabs, it will need to go in the same way.

Once the deck is out it can be rotated to access the back, there is plenty of slack on the cables so as long as you are gentle there is plenty of room to move.

The arrow shows the long piece responsible for the deck removal being slightly awkward. This needs to be centralised when reinserting. (Very easy, dont panic), we can also see the plate that needs to be removed for belt access, shown on the red circle.

The left hand side of the motor as orientated above is held in just by its clip design and tension, no screws to remove this side. Here is a picture of the left side:

The Right hand side (nearest the motor) is held on by two screws, these are also used as a grounding point and a clip to hold the wires together, remove the screws.

Don't diss the Commodores tape.

You now have access to the deck flywheel and can install belts, huzzah. You may need to remove the flywheel to clean off any goo (i did), if this is the case then be sure to catch the washer on he other side where the flywheel spindle pokes through to the deck, slot it back on when refitting. When all is clean install your belts, cleaning any other areas with goo. Install the flat belt first then the small square belt which operates fwd/rev. You can lift the flywheel gently to make this easy, 1/4 inch is fine.

Reassemble in reverse order.

Slot deck back in situ, screw back in place and reassemble box. I normally test before reassembly but as you don't seem to confident i would not recommend any testing with an open box and exposed electronics.

I think if you read each piece carefully and follow along you should be fine.

Edit: Almost forgot, here is a pic of the tape counter. Might as well slap a belt on that bad boy while your in there. Really grinds my gears when people rebelt and leave off the tape counter belt. I mean why? Your already in there....

and all that is missing from this nice teardown is a short video with the exposed electronics of the deck working as you mentioned

T-Ster, you have done very well in taking the time to compose and post this series of guiding photos on changing the cassette-deck belts of an Aiwa CS-600. The images and accompanying descriptions attest to the discipline and gift of such skill: taking apart any of a number of audio-equipment units, altering them -- usually for the better -- and reassembling them before birds nest through twenty or so generations. (Sigh)

However, this evening I have been most dauntingly reminded of what I have repeatedly stated on this website and elsewhere: that I am no "techie" or gadget doyen. I have certainly taken apart the cassette-deck mechanism of my CS-600U per T-Ster's how-to photos.

And that's just about All She Wrote.

Amid a whole lot of black goo and amid a whole lot of ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer, I ran into trouble (surprise, surprise).

The belt.

The cassette-deck flat belt.

The largest item in a ten-piece rubber-belt kit --one of three kits ordered on eBay early this year -- is no more. Well, it still exists. Just not quite as recognizable as it was hours earlier. And certainly no longer useful per its original design.

I kept thinking that even the largest of the kit's ten flat rubber belts seemed too small to snugly yet feasibly span the flywheel and the translucent plastic flange (or "collar") of the deck-motor shaft as the stereo was designed to look and to work.

And it happened when I was trying -- with mounting desperation -- to put the flat rubber belt on the relevant cassette-deck parts. That long, angular, tension-mounted swing arm --  whatever it's called -- went and guillotined the belt.

On the one hand: better the barely-stretchy black stuff than a finger of mine. (Scowl and shrug). On the other hand: do I need the hassle of trying to order more rubber-belt kits?

Or do I just give up?

Minutes-Later Update: Me? Dis' the Commodores? The house of urban rock and R&B that the likes of Lionel Richie and J.D. Nicholas helped to build? Whatever for? We have an album or two -- and perhaps a CD anthology -- of theirs, don't we?

Hiya, I'm reading this post with terror as I'm about to embark on my own belt replacement(different box though). Dont give up, it we be really satisfying once you've sorted it :-)

I should point out that it is much simpler than it looks, this is not i difficult box to work on. Lots of space and easily accessed components.

Thanks for popping back into this thread to help me in getting back on my feet, T-Ster. That scary tangle of wires, pinwheels, steel structures and unplugged screw posts really needs to be sorted out -- or out of here this 'box goes!

More calmly, though: what about that "long piece," as you call it? It at times looks like a graduated sort of ruler or tonearm, what with those markings along its length. Maybe it's an incidental look from the electroplating.

Anyway, can't one completely lift that lever-arm out of the way to get to the flywheel and the translucent plastic collar (or "flange") of the motor's shaft to fit the cassette-deck belts? Can't that C-shaped locking washer be removed to let one lift away the swing-arm to change the belts?

I can't afford to lose another tape-deck belt in the same way or some other way -- any more than I want to lose your patience with me. Really, I'm not splendid with puzzles of any sort. Not crossword puzzles, not those wooden six-piece puzzles people have on their coffee tables -- nothing of that sort. Unspectacular visual-spatial orientation would do that to you. (Sigh and shrug)

I suggest again that a good YouTube video clip of you -- perhaps specifically your hands -- modelling the wrangling of that tension-mounted swing-arm assembly before and after fitting on the tape-deck belts would marvellously complement your fine photos ...

I'm not sure why you are fixating on the long record arm that has no bearing at all on the belt change. I didn't remove it to do the belts, my instructions don't say to remove it to change the belts but if you want to remove it then fill your boots.

I described the easiest and quickest way of changing the belts removing the least possible amount of screws, if you feel there is a better way then you should plough on with that.

I don't have time to dismantle my box again to post a you tube video, really a box this simple doesn't warrant such in depth guides. I barely find time to do really important stuff so i thought piecing together a guide on my day off would have been enough. What a fool i am.

In the words of Duncan Banatynne, I'm out.

if you don't mind waiting about a week or so - about some time after the 4th of October 2016 I will dismantle my Aiwa 600u in a video for the cassette deck belt replacement - a - how to do but I don't have the belts for it - or - maybe I do... I don't know as I am in the middle of moving and like my previous ( above ) pictures - here is a update to this move - these are Android Samsung galaxy S5 pictures and I havn't quite figured out how to read or update how the date code in put for each picture but this is my progress so far in my move and when I am finished moving I will tackle the 600  as one of the first few things to do as I also have 2 different radios to video and ship out to 2 different people.  Ok?  Unless you are in a hurry then let somebody else get the glory.

I doubt that we've ever met, T-Ster. But there is assuredly nothing foolish about your helping out a fellow boomboxer. This is all new to me, from the cold, obviously hard steel of several of the portable stereo's parts to all the black goo that some of the original cassette-deck belts have turned into.

Repeated checks beginning a while ago via Google reveals this fellow Duncan Bannatyne to be a now-titled Scottish entrepreneur and philanthropist. He showed quite some initiative as a lad in his native Scotland when he planned to start -- and eventually did start -- a newspaper round, apparently to get a bicycle as did most other schoolchildren. Sheer pluck or charm led him to travel around, presumably on foot, collecting the required scores of names and addresses to buy a bicycle for those rounds -- a machine that his dear mum couldn't afford.

More to the point, sir, I think it's his recent bestseller 43 Mistakes Businesses Make that you allude to in deciding that you've had it with my abandonable Aiwa. In that book, Mr Bannatyne -- spelled "Banatynne" by you -- discusses how businesses -- and likely standalone entrepreneurs -- can "avoid ... costly mistakes that can waste time, cause embarrassment or even endanger the future of a business [or an entrepreneurial disposition]." Methinks you have that quoted sentiment of his -- or similar statements from earlier works of his -- in mind in telling this struggler: Begone!

What a September I'm having: being told to beat it by repair expert after repair expert, offline and in cyberspace. (SIGH)

JamesRC550 posted:

if you don't mind waiting about a week or so - about some time after the 4th of October 2016 I will dismantle my Aiwa 600u in a video for the cassette deck belt replacement - a - how to do but I don't have the belts for it - or - maybe I do... I don't know as I am in the middle of moving and like my previous ( above ) pictures - here is a update to this move - these are Android Samsung galaxy S5 pictures and I havn't quite figured out how to read or update how the date code in put for each picture but this is my progress so far in my move and when I am finished moving I will tackle the 600  as one of the first few things to do as I also have 2 different radios to video and ship out to 2 different people.  Ok?  Unless you are in a hurry then let somebody else get the glory.

 

Thanks for the repeat offer to help me out, James. Your storage room looks interesting -- at times positively exciting -- with the sight of those boomboxes and jamboxes lining those black, wire-frame shelves.

Permit me to say that I suddenly remembered minutes ago the information about yourself that you shared here on Stereo2Go some time ago. You revealed that you worked at an electronics retail shop in the 1980s. You posted images online of yourself in the store where you worked and images of the store's window and shelved displays.

Was it in Japan that you worked? I seem to remember that it was indeed in that nation. I now wonder if the often-exciting sight of all those shelved portables is an unconscious or semi-conscious way of re-creating that shop -- uh, even though many of those radio cassette-recorders need quite a bit of TLC, especially on their tape decks. (No offense, sir.)

Yes, a how-to video showing the installation of the cassette-deck belts of an Aiwa CS-600 would be helpful, sir -- if, of course, you have the original tape-deck belts for the stereo in question or if you can find suitable replacement belts to model the repair on-camera. (Shrug)

I tried to order a new flat-belt tape-deck kit from the same California eBay seller that I ordered the same product from earlier this year. If and when the package gets here, it will probably be early October 2016. I hope that I can stay my nervous hands long enough to keep from snapping another no-handy-spares rubber belt in an ill-advised attempt to pick up where I've left off with the CS-600U.

That is, I had better wait for you, James, or someone else who knows what they're doing to show how it's done on-camera.

Don't run yourself ragged during the move, sir. And hope those customers appreciate the portables that you're about to ship to them.

Uh, I'm sorry, folks, but what sort of rubber belt does one use for the tape-deck counter of a portable stereo -- or, more specifically, for the tape-deck counter of an Aiwa CS-600U? Is it one with a square cross-section or one with a round cross-section? Can't quite tell from looking at Google Images search results ...

I'm trying to finish installing cassette-deck belts on this contraption after the arrival of some parts that I ordered -- some of which took a strange while to arrive. (Shrug)

I have a packet of three large rubber belts of different sizes with round cross-sections and a packet of five much smaller rubber belts -- also of different sizes -- with square cross-sections. I ordered them -- along with a tape-deck flat-belt ten-pack -- from an eBay seller early this year.

Anyway, could someone also tell me what diameter or circumference of tape-counter belt -- in inches or centimetres -- to use? I'd appreciate the help. Thanks!

EastHelp posted:

Uh, I'm sorry, folks, but what sort of rubber belt does one use for the tape-deck counter of a portable stereo -- or, more specifically, for the tape-deck counter of an Aiwa CS-600U? Is it one with a square cross-section or one with a round cross-section? Can't quite tell from looking at Google Images search results ...

I'm trying to finish installing cassette-deck belts on this contraption after the arrival of some parts that I ordered -- some of which took a strange while to arrive. (Shrug)

I have a packet of three large rubber belts of different sizes with round cross-sections and a packet of five much smaller rubber belts -- also of different sizes -- with square cross-sections. I ordered them -- along with a tape-deck flat-belt ten-pack -- from an eBay seller early this year.

Anyway, could someone also tell me what diameter or circumference of tape-counter belt -- in inches or centimetres -- to use? I'd appreciate the help. Thanks!

are the grooves in the pulleys half round then it take a round belt or are the grooves in the pulleys in the shape of a ( V ) then it takes a 'square belt' . and a tape counter belt doesn't need much power to transmit there for the lightest or smallest diameter belt would be just fine, as all it is doing is just rotating thos counter numbers and if you spin the little wheel that drive those numbers you will understand that it is very easy to do so the tinest belt of the correct length will be just fine, ok?

Thanks for the reply, James. I've been struggling with the tape-counter belt for a moment or two now.

To say the least, I'm concerned about replacing the old, gone-to-goo tape-counter belt that the Aiwa was built with decades ago.

A long look at the reddish spindle or hub of the tape-counter assembly -- a look powered with a pretty bright nine-LED mini-flashlight -- indicates that the machinery takes a cross-sectionally square belt.

But these rubber belts that I'm trying to select a replacement from are rather thin.

You, sir, seem to be saying in your response that "the thinnest belt of the correct length will be just fine."

I certainly hope so. A look at the pieces of the previous cassette-counter belt makes it clear that the original belt was a good deal thicker than a half-dozen sewing threads woven together -- which is the impression one gets from the thinness of these would-be replacement rubber belts that I received via eBay in, I think, February 2016. Apparently fifty of the newer belts -- of various sizes -- were shipped in an obviously value-priced two-pack, but they all seem too darn thin! (Frown)

Even if I manage to re-seat and re-fasten the cassette-deck assembly and even if I manage to re-seal the Aiwa's cabinet, what sort of longevity will such rather thin rubber belts have? Assuming the following cassette-deck usage schedule makes any sense: if one were to use this Aiwa CS-600U -- with this quality of repair -- for playing ninety-minute audiocassettes for one hour a week, with no more than 90 seconds each of rewinding and fast-forwarding per playback hour, with the unit used at sea level between fifty and ninety degrees Fahrenheit, for how long will the rubber belts last before needing -- sigh -- more replacing?

Then again, why get ahead of oneself with scenarios and estimates and "guesstimates"? (Shrug) Let's first re-seat the cassette-deck mechanism, shall we?

Rubber belts like car tires all have a finite life.  Tires are gonna get a flat or get dry rot and fail over time, so do rubber drive belts.  So when the tires on your car have thin tread you simply replace them right, well the same is true for the cassette deck rubber belts, when they go bad and fail you just replace them and keep on playing your cassette's.  This is a part of life with rubber products, and as far as the thinness is concerned don't be worried about them breaking or how long that will be in time, just be glad we are not talking about condoms and how long they last in constant use

Thanks for all the advice and the morale boosts that I've gotten from S2Gers like our man James in my struggle with this stereo. The good news -- so-called "good news," that is -- is that the Aiwa CS-600U is a good bit more recognizable as the radio cassette-recorder that the company designed and built back in the day -- more so than it was twenty-four hours ago and after my second re-sealing and re-closing effort of the casing of the stereo after dealing with --  or after being dealt with by -- the cassette deck.

The bad news is that this here CS-600U is no closer to playing -- or even properly "housing" -- an audiocassette in its tape-deck well than it was before I opened it up about two weeks ago. No, not really any closer.

Why? Well, the problem seems to be a non-electronic part of the cassette-deck mechanism. It's a funny-looking thing that current and former Stereo2Go members like Lazanas, like skippy1969 and like Fuzzyduck more or less discussed in the March 13, 2008 posting "Aiwa 600 Belt Problem." Fuzzyduck uploaded a fair image of the item in question -- helpfully highlighted in green -- from her CS-660* in a March 20, 2008 follow-up. (*Earlier misidentified by yours truly as the Aiwa CS-600; yet both models presumably have similar cassette-deck mechanisms.)

http://www.stereo2go.com/topic/aiwa-600-belt-problem

It's telling that this is one of the two images that I each printed a page of when I was getting ready to have the stereo fixed weeks ago. And it's telling that the part kept falling off, out of its bracket -- or whatever its niche is called -- when I was trying to work on the boombox.

What is it, Aiwa's version of a wishbone for the CS-600?

Ah, well: the projecting, downward-curving hook-like item is keeping the tape deck of the Aiwa from properly "seating," let alone playing, an audiocassette -- in this case, the same 90-minute Fuji DR-I with which I determined the fault of the '600's tape deck when I first received it in late August 2016. The tape-deck well comes closer to fully shutting in the cassette, but not quite.

No use (literally) forcing the issue; that just wrecks hopefully still-useful analog-era electronics. And I suppose it's no use trying to slice off any so-called excess of that part. Fuzzyduck identified the piece as "part of the recording system which detects if the protection tabs on the cassette have been removed."

That seems to make it clear: "No Yanking Out Or Hacking Off Allowed." I must have re-installed it incorrectly for it to be aggrieving me.

But the thought of trying to open that stereo for a third time ...

again you will need to be patient  and when I am fully moved I will open my Aiwa 600 in a video probably in parts you know like 1 then 2 then 3 then yadda and I will need some time to find my belts too as they are packed somewhere, as I am fairly sure that I have at least one set of belts for this model

I obviously don't know where most S2Gers live -- other than knowing that we all seem to live on planet Earth. (Shrug)

Anyway, hopefully no Stereo2Go member had one's property devastated by Hurricane Matthew. And hopefully nobody here was physically hurt by the storm. That meteorological monster has roared through the eastern seaboard of the United States -- including where we live, here in Jacksonville, Florida.

Here in our home, we lost power for what I reckon is just under twenty-six hours. We've still got a lot of cleaning up to do here at our residence. That includes the removal of downed trees.

And all this time, while the Aiwa CS-600U remains physically relatively safe, it is clearly still incomplete. For one thing, the control tips and control knobs haven't been reattached. And, even if they were, only the radio tuner and the LINE IN functions might work -- if they haven't been compromised somehow. (Scowl)

The cassette deck remains frustratingly incapable of properly enclosing, letting alone playing, an audiocassette. I again suspect that it's due to an improperly reinstalled, all-plastic, one-piece item that former Stereo2Go member Fuzzyduck ID'ed from her Aiwa CS-660 as "part of the recording system which detects if the protection tabs on the cassette have been removed."

I doubt the portable's tape-deck portion will be even moderately usable without that item somehow in place in the facing-left portion of the cassette deck's frontal aspect. No use daring to pull open the CS-600U yet again: even if I managed to do so a third time -- uh-oh -- I wouldn't know what to adjust. Or how to adjust it.

Well I have lived in Florida two different times and 2 different cities and have survives many storms when I was there, I even watched 2 different Mercury Redstone rockets take off from the beach with the launch pad being only about 2 miles away.    Now I have the proper sense to not live there cause of them hurricanes, glad your Aiwa has survived the power outage. 

I too ignore where most s2goers live. Glad to hear that you survived the hurricane, I am always sad to read of natural catastrophies like that one. My thought goes to those who didn't made it, especially to the unlucky Haitians who seem to have been targeted by disaster this last decade

I have less technical skills than anybody else on this forum. But Seb968 has worked on the Aiwa CS 600, and MitchellJames has a copy of the operation manual. See this thread:

http://www.stereo2go.com/topic...l-for-an-aiwa-cs-600

You can pm both, they're are extremely helpful and they will certainly give you all the assistance you need. Last but not least, service manual can be bought at the following address:

http://www.vintagemanuals.com/...hp?manufacturer=Aiwa

You have more skills than me Sal, im the only guy who can trash 2 m90's lol

Im glad you made it through the huricane too, i wanted to move to Florida but stuff that for a game of soldiers lad...easthelp if i had a working 600 id send it to you free buddy, they oftern go for nothing on our ebay, i have a 770 but it hardly gets any use, i just have to many boxes, some have actually gone missing, i think im getting dimenture lol due to sleeping all the time....Where is sebastian??? real nice guy who seems to have vanished like so many... i hope he is ok too

Thanks for weighing in with your suggestions and your sentiments, guys -- and you with your boombox-donation suggestion, Reno. (Blush)

Oh, here is a photograph that I took with the Nokia Lumia 521 smartphone:

This photograph is obviously of the cassette-deck well of a cassette-recorder system. In this case, it's that of the Aiwa CS-600U that I'm still trying to get in shape. The photo' was taken sometime between 3:30 AM and 4:00 AM Eastern Time today, October 10, 2016.

The photograph is meant to at least give a glimpse of the "recording-system protection-tabs-detector," as I referred to the technology as being in the photo' that I sent to my e-mail folder earlier today.

I've repeatedly suspected that the white or off-white, all-plastic hook-like device is the reason why the tape-deck well of the CS-600U won't properly fit, let alone play audiocassettes. I have repeatedly suspected that the device was incorrectly reinstalled when  I tried to replace the tape-deck rubber belts after I reset the tape-deck flywheel.

It has often seemed that the tab-detector device is not "yielding" sufficiently to let audiocassettes properly fit into the tape well and then be played, rewound, etc., by the stereo.

But you know what? Scant hours ago, I started to suspect another culprit.

Those cassette-deck hubs -- you know, those black, finned, cone-ended posts that turn the audiotape reels -- look a bit too elongated on their spring-sheathed, spring-wrapped shafts. A couple of hours ago, I did a simple, admittedly nonscientific check of the cassette decks of a few other, longer-owned audio systems here in our home.

The cassette decks of audio systems like the Sanyo M-1770K jambox and like the much newer, much costlier TEAC LP-R550USB radio/cassette player/record player/CD burner have tape-reel hubs that don't show any such amount of shaft-wound spring -- if any at all. Even that tape-eating monster of an RCA RCD-152E here in my bedroom properly fits audiocassettes in its tape well. (Just don't ask me to play audiotapes with that system anytime soon -- tape-eating teeth-gritter that it was when last I tried playing what I think was a home-dubbed audiocassette years ago!)

None of those other audio systems have rather long -- or rather long-looking -- cassette-hub shafts. And their tab-detector devices aren't getting in the way of their tape wells at least fully enclosing audiocassettes. (And, of course, I'm half-assuming that Aiwa models' cassette-deck hubs don't typically come with elongated, spring-showing tape-reel shafts.)

So, which is the case: this Aiwa cassette deck's tab-detector device being the obstructor or the rather long-looking cassette-hub shafts being the obstructor?

well today is  my last day of being in this place of almost 20 years of living ( or suffering as I call it with never any hot water ' warm maybe but never hot enough  to need to mix with cold to make the hot cool enough to be bearable ) and as I have run out of space in my storage and knowing just how much little space I have in my new place I will be leaving some parts boombox's behind here for the property place to toss as I just don't have the time or the energy to remove them given the time I have left here today.  So after I get myself up to my new place with the remaining stuff I have and that unpacked or just in the box's to organize in to the new place then the next day or so I will get out my  Aiwa 600 and take it apart as my first repair to fix in the new place as I have a 30' by 60' work table to work on and well you know as you will see as I will be taking pictures and video of certain areas of this boombox and addressing your issues with this box.  Please be patient with me I am going to get to the inside of this box as my example my have different issues that yours but I don't know what they are until I go exploring with it.

This Friday, October 14, 2016 I took three more photographs of my Aiwa CS-600U. That is, I took photos of the cassette-deck mechanism of that portable stereo after I regained the nerve to open the boombox for the third time. I reopened the Aiwa around 5:20 PM Eastern Time. All the photographs were taken with the Nokia Lumia 521 smartphone with the Aiwa on my bedroom desk. Here we go:

The above photograph is of the right-hand side of the Aiwa's cassette-deck mechanism. The photo's notes partly say:

This photo' is an attempt at getting an acceptable view of the tape-deck belts and of any cogs and gear wheels in place before further disassembly. I earlier suspected that the cassette deck's recording-system tab-detector device was to blame. I now think that the cassette deck's spindles -- that turn the audiotape reels during playback, during fast-forwarding, etc. -- are projecting too far forward, preventing the tape-deck well from closing with an audiocassette in it, let alone playing any audiotapes.*

This image is of the left-hand side of the CS-600U cassette-deck mechanism. In the e-mailed notes I observe:

With the guidance and inspiration of boombox-fan website members, I was able to reset the flywheel mechanism -- thus freeing the jammed tape heads -- and I later managed to put three cassette-deck rubber belts in place to replace the original ones that had since "gone [to] goo,**" as technicians say. I am informed that the deterioration of the tape-deck belts is the reason why the tape-heads mechanism got jammed to begin with.

Though a bit later, I admit: Not sure how useful this photo' is, though ...*

The photograph above is a lower-positioned frontal image of the cassette-deck mechanism of this radio cassette-recorder that is sometimes known simply as "Stereo 600." Here the tape-deck flat belt is more clearly seen, as is the flywheel that the flat belt wraps around. Part of the long, angular, pivoting -- and, yes, daunting -- steel arm, whatever its name, is also visible right next to the belt-braced flywheel. Due to the side lighting from the Sharper Image "Bright As Day!™" lamp, a bit of the left end of the red and black wiring has a sort of white line along it. The black patch and black bits behind the wiring are, perhaps obviously, old-belt residue. (Quite thick and not so easily wiped away.)

Perhaps I must clarify: I have near-obsessively checked and re-checked the stubborn cassette-deck well. (Sigh)

I typically use the 90-minute Fuji DR-I audiocassette -- the one that I fully used up in radio-recording months earlier.

All that checking increasingly suggests that the cassette-deck hubs -- or "cassette-deck spindles" -- are positioned a shade high relative to the characteristically white tape reels. Sorry, no photos, but perhaps you can picture what I mean: the finned tape-deck hubs and the toothed tape reels don't "mesh" or "dovetail."

The tips of the tape-deck hubs "hit" a few millimetres too high up the rim of the tape reels, so to speak. So the cassette-deck well can't quite close with any audiocassette in it. (Shaking this head of mine)

I now wonder: how well can the securely remounted cassette-deck mechanism of an Aiwa CS-600 be shifted up or down by a few millimetres to properly fit and play audiocassettes in resealed form?

* = Italics added for emphasis

** = October 15, 2016 Edit: Actually, only the flat belt and the tape-counter belt had "gone to goo" when I first opened the Aiwa up; I seem to remember that the thin square belt -- used to control rewinding and fast-forwarding -- was still extant but probably too loose for me to trust it to stay put.

In addition to the problem of these cassette-deck spindles -- or cassette-deck "hubs" -- that seem to be mounted a few millimetres too high for any audiocassette to fit onto the tape-deck hubs and play, rewind, etc., I'm starting to think that I'm going to need a new motor for the Aiwa CS-600U.

I opened the unit for a fourth time this Monday, October 17, 2016, minutes after midnight. I tried to have the cassette-deck mechanism shifted a few millimetres further down, towards the bottom of the stereo. I didn't fully unscrew the unit; I just loosened the four mounting screws enough to feel that I had a fair chance of pulling and pushing the deck mechanism downwards ever so slightly.

At one point I felt that I needed some leverage between the operating-lights façade and the top of the cassette-deck mechanism. So I actually used one blade of a pair of red- and black-handled Wanby scissors that I think that I've had for over a decade. I didn't fully screw back in the mechanism-mounting screw nearest the tape-counter assembly. I felt not fully screwing it in would give some sort of advantage.

I had a pretty hard time re-closing the cabinet; the tape-counter reset button was at issue because I couldn't get it to fit into its slot.

After my back was clammy with sweat, I finally got the unit closed and screwed it shut.

Who was I kidding?

The was no difference in how the tape-deck well handles audiocassettes after all those antics than there was before I jumped through circus hoops. (Sigh and scowl)

I tried other equally dubious "hacks." I tried fitting a bit of folded-up paper in the corners of the tape-deck door.

I thought that the cassette would rest on the little, folded-up paper "mounts" and would be lifted enough to fit onto the tape-deck hubs. But of course that can cause the tape-heads mechanism to lose some or all contact with the magnetic tape that it's supposed to playback audio from or record onto, etc. And I didn't want the bits of paper falling into the electromechanical intricacies of the cassette mechanism. So I gave that silly idea up.

I also tried wrapping black sewing thread between the right-hand tape-deck spindle's tip and the finned, spring-loaded tape-deck hub. I tried to reason that a slightly pulled-back or a slightly held-back tape-deck hub would somehow accommodate an audiotape. I spent a long while trying to wind several turns of the thread around the tape-deck spindle. The Aiwa was sealed back up, so that adventure was that much trickier.

Nothing doing.

(Hey, I've more recently started to suspect that this problem of the tape-deck well not fully enclosing an audiotape is about the tape-deck hubs being a bit too high-mounted. I now suspect less that the problem is about the tape-deck hubs being too forward-mounted. So this threading idea is just a waste of time.)

So, after taking a long while to read Stereo2Go posts earlier tonight and after taking a long while to compose and post typically long messages, I finally got around to opening up the '600 again -- risking family-meeting interruptions and the like that would have left my bedroom in a "hot mess," as some folks say.

And all this for ... what?

Ultimately discovering that the tape-deck motor of the Aiwa is doornail-dead -- despite three new tape-deck belts being installed many days earlier and despite being plugged into a reliable, turned-on surge protector that is plugged into a steady household-power supply?

I had obviously put the control-switch tips and control knobs back in place first. And I obviously tested the Aiwa's tape deck with no audiocassette in the confounded tape-deck well. But surely this model wasn't so fancy when it was new that the tape deck wouldn't react at all to the pressing of the tape-deck controls unless an audiotape was in place? (Shrug)

Looking again at the images of T-Ster's very useful how-to CS-600 strip-down, one can see that the Aiwa CS-600 -- perhaps any version thereof -- takes a 12-volt DC motor, made by Matsushita or otherwise. Shopping for another motor, of course, assumes that a dead motor is the problem, that I didn't screw up installing the tape-deck belts many days earlier. And where would I get a new -- that is, a properly working -- tape-deck motor for an Aiwa CS-600U? On eBay?

(Yes, the radio tuner of the Aiwa still works after all my opening and closing of the stereo. I assume it works as well as it did before I first opened it, though I dialed into only one station -- maybe 93.3 MHz -- when I turned the unit on maybe for the first time in twenty-four days. I didn't try testing the LINE IN or headphone features. This darned cassette-deck issue is such a nuisance ...)

I'm here but I need a bit more time to find and assemble my tools and most importantly where are my rubber drive belts - that is, where did I pack them???  Once I find those in my arraignment of my new place and then set up in my new work area then I will document this Aiwa 600, please be patient am getting there.

JamesRC550 posted:

I'm here but I need a bit more time to find and assemble my tools and most importantly where are my rubber drive belts - that is, where did I pack them???  Once I find those in my arraignment of my new place and then set up in my new work area then I will document this Aiwa 600, please be patient am getting there.

Hmm ... perhaps in some big kraft envelope that was used by some Stereo2Go or BoomBoxery member to mail a plastic part to you weeks or months before you ordered the tape-deck belts? I sort of have that setup in a corner of my bedroom. (Wry grin)

And, speaking of setups, I guess, when you wrote "arraignment," you meant "arrangement." Unless, of course, your new place has been a bit naughty -- you know, too many loud pajamas in the closet -- and needs to go before the Honourable Carruthers Beauchamps ...

Earlier today, just after 7:14 AM Eastern Time, I opened the Aiwa for the fourth time.

There were some alarming moments when I accidentally damaged something during the opening of the cabinet. That "something": the left-hand cassette-deck spindle, ironically enough. It dropped out of the CS-600's cavity in three parts: "a somewhat thick, black-tipped steel pin, ... a small, non-hook-ended spring and ... the finned portion of the tip of the cassette-deck [hub]." I seem to have put those bits back in. (Sigh)

Well, here's the first image:

Here the cassette-deck mechanism is still mounted. Aside from smartphone-camera angles and the new tape-counter belt, there shouldn't be much difference between this image and the September 22, 2016 photo' that I took of the mechanism when I wrenched open the stereo for the first time.

Here's the second photo' ...

This image is a photograph of the "upended" rear edge of the Aiwa's cassette-deck mechanism.

From this angle, one clearly sees both the cassette-deck flat belt and the thin, square belt used to rewind and fast-forward the audiocassette.

One also sees parts of the many cogs and gears that operate the mechanism. Visible also are supporting springs and the black, plastic(?) posts that lend structure to the machined upper and lower steel plates of the cassette-deck machinery.

I hope someone here will run one's eyes over these images --perhaps especially the second one -- and spot anything out of place that is the likely cause of the millimetrically misaligned, slightly too-high tape-deck hubs and spindles.

Is there supposed to be a third photo'? Uh, yes. Trouble is, I can't find it in my e-mail. It was the second image that I snapped of the cassette-deck mechanism today. I probably didn't send it at first because I didn't think it was that relevant. (Shrug)

The image clearly shows the reddish tape-counter spindle, obviously now sporting a hopefully not-too-thin rubber belt. (I mean, the heft of the one T-Ster modelled in his how-to post's images is all business ...)

try and put a cassette in with the aiwa apart. press rew ff... what happens???

radio raheem posted:

try and put a cassette in with the aiwa apart. press rew ff... what happens???

Hey, it's Reno, AKA our Radio Raheem!

Sorry, sir, but I think the answer is: nothing.

I remember trying to empty-test the cassette deck of the CS-600U when I reassembled the Aiwa a handful of days ago.

As paragraph 16, sentence 3 of my October 17 post here notes, I assume -- indeed, I hope -- that no version of the Aiwa CS-600 is so sophisticated or so "fussy," if you will, that there is no way for an inexperienced would-be boombox-repairer like yours truly to test the tape deck's functions without an audiotape.

If the resealed Aiwa's empty tape deck won't react when the PLAY, REWIND or CUE/FAST FORWARD keys are pressed, I'm guessing the pulled-apart Aiwa's tape deck will still give me the silent treatment -- even with a mint-condition, 90-minute Fuji DR-I in the deck that's now open to the air. That's probably not because the design is fussy like that -- "No tape in me, no play for you, buster." No, it's probably because the tape-deck motor is a used-up, burned-out lump of steel.

Yes, that's what I fear. (Sigh)

There should be a little leaf switch on the deck somewhere that activates the motor when ff rew play is engaged...can you see it anywhere? i can't for obvious reasons, can you find it and confirm it is making contact, or not, as looks like the case

I'm not sure what you mean by "leaf switch," Reno, although Google search results seem to say something about gathering and then distributing signals in electronics. (Shrug)

Anyway, I used the Nokia Lumia 521 here at home. After a couple of false starts -- poor focusing and the like -- I took this photograph after 8:08 PM of the electronics and wiring in the left corner of the Aiwa's cassette-deck mechanism.

As the notes that I sent with my picture e-mail state: "My focus for several days has been [on] rectifying the problem of the cassette-deck spindles apparently being millimetrically too high-mounted to 'dovetail' with the reels' rings of any audiocassette to be played, rewound, etc, on the tape deck. But I am now focusing on that steel post -- with a hole in the top -- located on that black cuboid."

That topmost stud or "contact" looks a bit lonely. I'm now wondering: should that contact post have a wire -- "live" or grounding -- in the Aiwa CS-600?

In other words, do I have to solder? Now that's an idea that gets me even more heated up than having to open up a neat-looking boombox, I tell you ...

EastHelp posted:

I'm not sure what you mean by "leaf switch," Reno, although Google search results seem to say something about gathering and then distributing signals in electronics. (Shrug)

Anyway, I used the Nokia Lumia 521 here at home. After a couple of false starts -- poor focusing and the like -- I took this photograph after 8:08 PM of the electronics and wiring in the left corner of the Aiwa's cassette-deck mechanism.

As the notes that I sent with my picture e-mail state: "My focus for several days has been [on] rectifying the problem of the cassette-deck spindles apparently being millimetrically too high-mounted to 'dovetail' with the reels' rings of any audiocassette to be played, rewound, etc, on the tape deck. But I am now focusing on that steel post -- with a hole in the top -- located on that black cuboid."

That topmost stud or "contact" looks a bit lonely. I'm now wondering: should that contact post have a wire -- "live" or grounding -- in the Aiwa CS-600?

In other words, do I have to solder? Now that's an idea that gets me even more heated up than having to open up a neat-looking boombox, I tell you ...

That looks like you're leaf switch and it looks broken to me but you would need someone else to confirm this my friend as i could be wrong

Without the leaf switch making contact, no power will get to the motor

JamesRC550 posted:

I'm here but I need a bit more time to find and assemble my tools and most importantly where are my rubber drive belts - that is, where did I pack them???  Once I find those in my arraignment of my new place and then set up in my new work area then I will document this Aiwa 600, please be patient am getting there.

1630 hours today I have finally found my replacement belts that I put in the super important place so that I find them right away but after thinking of where I have moved them to I could not find them until moments ago meanwhile I have discovered other boombox's that I have bought going back 4 years or more that I never opened and even found a duplicate 3 years apart.  So now I must clear up the area in which to open this 600 and document it that I have scattered with other stuff while looking for the belts, and so I must get back to work here.  Tomorrow