[Blast]

I worked on a lot of VCRs in the late 80's and 90's and none since so the memory is likely far gone on this one. But, if that's a late 80's model I found there were 4 or 5 issues that, once addressed and repaired made those models SOLID!

Sounds like you've found two of them- power supply caps and loose P3. The brass piece would often fall out the bottom of both P2 and P3 and, if I was lucky, would still be laying inside to make the repair with two-part epoxy. But, I also sold a lot of those guides, as well.

Some of those models had a nylon sprocket/gear attached to the bottom of the capstan motor flywheel (that engaged the belt to the idler) that would crack and fall into the bottom of the VCR. A little epoxy and I never had a callback on it.

Fourth, there was a capacitor on the lower cylinder that would fail and present with a partial playback picture. It was always a "clean" break in the picture that would change position after the cylinder was brought to a complete stop and restarted. I kept a certain tantalum cap in stock to replace the defective one. Can't remember the value.

And finally was dirty mode state switches. I cleaned many and replaced many.

After you got past those issues those late 80's JVC's were a force to be reckoned. Glad to hear you're on top of yours!