I am looking at an old Sony model SLV-585HF VCR. Fast forward & rewind are ok. The picture plays back & forth from very good to poor to no video signal (blue screen). I looked at the back tension band on the supply hub and it appears to be a little stretched. Just wondering if it is supposed to be a little loose or could this even cause my problem? I was thinking of shortening it a little and re-attaching it with super glue. Probably a hard part to get today? Is this question perhaps better for another forum? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Dan S

I am looking at an old Sony model SLV-585HF VCR. Fast forward & rewind are ok. The picture plays back & forth from very good to poor to no video signal (blue screen). I looked at the back tension band on the supply hub and it appears to be a little stretched. Just wondering if it is supposed to be a little loose or could this even cause my problem? I was thinking of shortening it a little and re-attaching it with super glue. Probably a hard part to get today? Is this question perhaps better for another forum? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Dan S
DO NOT do anything to the back tension band especially cutting it to shorten it and glue it back. That I can assure you will not work. Very common and more likely, I would guess on that model the half-load arm that pulls the tape up against the AC (Audio-Control track) head when it loads is seized on its pivot shaft. It should move freely with your finger with a slight spring tension. I always disassemble tha arm from the shaft, clean off the old grease, re-lube with a tiny bit of oil, put back together, then realign the tape path to eliminate any tape edge wrinkling top and bottom, forward and reverse search.

000

Is the RVS thread arm nice & free? I bet it's jammed all the way out, which causes the tape to have no tension (and to eat tapes if it decides to ooze back into position)... I don't have a picture, but it's an arm that has a gray pot metal hub, and a stainless pole, which swings underneath the front of the cassette for eject, then when loading, the arm pulls the tape out of the cassette first, to bring it in place for the pinch roller to come over. If it's jammed all the way out, it will be sitting to the right rear of the pinchroller and capstan with no tape around it while playing. That needs to be free as the breeze. If it's even slightly gooey in movement, you're in trouble. It takes a 4.5mm nut driver to take the arm ass'y off, and you clean the axle and inside the hub with a toothpick wet with WD-40. (naturally, get NO WD-40 anywhere whatsoever except for the hub and axle, and you can use a tiny dot of white grease when reinstalling the arm. That's the #1 problem I've seen on those, and it's a GREAT VCR!!!!!! Probably the best Sony VHS machine ever made for home use. Another tip: Remove and throw out the auto-cleaning arm & yellow foam pad. It's nothing but trouble.

Charles

I just wrote a very detailed response to this thread & it said I did not have permission & it is all lost. Don't understand? I spent alot of time writing it What BS!

In short Can I photo the VCR and have someone ID the parts I need to look at. Not sure what1/2 load arm is audio, control track or RVS thread. I'm tired and I wrote a nice detailed reply that took time. What happened? Very annoyed!

And no the counter does not count when a tape is played. How much time can you have to compose your post before you time out? Very frustrated loosing what I wrote!

And no the counter does not count when a tape is played. How much time can you have to compose your post before you time out? Very frustrated loosing what I wrote!

Sounds like it signed you out. I hate that too, and it happens now & then. Whenever I write a long post, I always right click/copy it before pressing to post. It's easy to forget to do that, and chances are, the time you forget will be the time you wished you had. :no: . I had to quit using a desktop because of a dang anti-virus program that refused to allow cookies, even when I OK'd them. Consequently, as soon as I would sign into any forum, it would refuse to let me do anything because the cookies from the forum are rejected. Nobody could fix it, and I didn't want to reformat and reinstall Windows since I had no driver disk for the mother board, and no download available.

Charles

In short Can I photo the VCR and have someone ID the parts I need to look at. Not sure what1/2 load arm is audio, control track or RVS thread. I'm tired and I wrote a nice detailed reply that took time. What happened? Very annoyed!

That's what you need to do so I or someone else can point to the loading arm that's likely the culprit. Must say though I've seen some stuck onto the shaft so hard only way I could get loose to take apart was heat the arm with the tip of a soldering iron until it would move. You will need to align the arm height by adjusting the nut once you clean, lube and put back together, or else some tape damage could result. Before you loosen the nut, be sure to take a mental note of how close to the top of the threaded part of the pivot shaft is above the nut. It's probably sticking up barely above the top of the nut and you can feel that with your fingernail. There will be a little black washer under the nut too, don't lose that. Good luck.

(BTW I've NEVER had it log me out.)

Again thanks for the great replies. Here is a photo of the transport if someone can identify those sites I should check out & clean. Does that supply hub back brake band look ok, or it is supposed to look loose?
Will I be able to get the on-screen display turned off with a universal replacement remote control? (no remote)
Dan S

Here is the arm in question and roughly the position it should be in when in the unloaded state. It's stuck from the grease.


http://videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=173927&stc=1&d=1333977850

The arm should normally move freely with your finger with a little spring resistance. If you take it apart be sure to note how close the nut is adjusted to the top of the shaft. Just a 1/6 wrong turn one way or the other will cause tape edge wrinkling.

The back tension tension band tightens up around the reel base when the tension arm moves up against the tape in play-rec.The slack looks normal to me more-or-less.

I would not worry about the bt band until you get the arm moving freely.

...is something missing there? I don't see the vertical pin that grabs the tape on the far end of the arm in question. I wonder if it somehow was damaged or removed.

I agree with the advice from everyone else, but will add one thing. I have seen a few of those stuck so bad that I had to drip a drop of acetone on the pivot point ( maybe several drops several seconds apart to keep it wet as the acetone evaporates) to help soften the grease-turned-cement that Sony put there.

Those are good machines. Of the 3 VCRs I have kept, that is one of them

...is something missing there? I don't see the vertical pin that grabs the tape on the far end of the arm in question. I wonder if it somehow was damaged or removed.

I agree with the advice from everyone else, but will add one thing. I have seen a few of those stuck so bad that I had to drip a drop of acetone on the pivot point ( maybe several drops several seconds apart to keep it wet as the acetone evaporates) to help soften the grease-turned-cement that Sony put there.


I hope the guide pin is hidden from our view under the pinch roller. I think it is. The arm has a bend in it where that hole is as I recall and extends behind the pinch roller.

I've used the hot tip of a soldering iron on the arm next to the arm pivot point until it starts to move on ones so stuck wouldn't move at all without possibly bending the guide pin (almost like glued with epoxy or super glue!) Takes about 10 seconds of heat and it starts moving. The heat dissipates fast into the aluminum and I have never damaged anything doing it that way.

I never thought about heat. If I ever see another one of these I'll give that a try.

Thanks so much Mr. Ed in TX....yes the arm hardly moves...been busy with life/work & will post my outcome soon. I normally work on antique radios & vintage stereo...but of late been asked to look at the old higher quality VCRs..scary to me. With such great replies I maybe gaining a confidence. I have several more to tackel. Thanks again!
Dan in Cleveland

STUCK indeed! That's your problem. Use a 4mm (if I recall) nut driver and remove the arm. No need to remove other parts; just gently swing the arm back toward the cassette holder then remove it... Clean with solvent, both the inside of the arm hole and the shaft, and then put a tiny blot of machine oil on the shaft. Reinstall and thread the nut back on the shaft until the threads just barely show through the nut. It should now spring back with no resistance. Make sure the spring is set in the correct position to pop the arm to toward the cassette; not toward the pinch roller.

Charles

Repositioning that arm is critical. You MAY want to try dripping some acetone down the shaft without removing the arm (difficult, but not impossible) and working the arm back and forth until it frees itself. You do this by pushing down on the guide and working solvent into the pivot. If you can get it to move with solvent, follow that with some light machine oil (one drop on a dental pick, or something like that).

If you have to remove that arm: MAKE A JIG. Take a small piece of plastic, put it next to the arm, mark it with an eXacto blade. When you put the arm back, you can use the jig to put the arm at its original height.

Adjusting that arm after removal is important, and is best done with a T-160 tape (it's thinner). Load the tape, put the unit into play, then use the FF/RW scan functions to watch the tape as it goes past that guide. It should not curl or deform at either the top or the bottom of the guide. REV scan is usually more critical, so watch that carefully. Adjust the guide this way: Allow the bottom of the guide to curl tape (guide is too high at first) in REV scan mode and work the guide down until it just stops contacting tape. You will be able to see the bottom of the tape smooth out. Then make sure that there is little or no curl at the top and bottom in both FF and REV scan.

Then, lock the screw down with some nail polish, as it will drift over time if you do not.

There is also one more issue with this mech (well, two if you count the guide drive gears that break), and that's the capstan motor. I can't tell from your photos which motor you have. If you take a picture of the capstan motor, I can take a look.

The old motors have a cast shaft holder that is too weak for the pressure put on them by the pinch roller, and they deform over time. The capstan goes out of perpendicular, and the flywheel will rub against the drive coils. This will usually show up as unstable picture after about 45 minutes of play, but will also show up in other ways.

Sony made a kit for the motor shaft which has long since gone unavailable. If you have the old motor, it is only a matter of time before it fails, as failure rate is 100%.

Take a photo so I can see.