I went to the Vacuum-Cleaner-Collectors' Club convention in Cleveland a few days ago, and on the way back, I went to the Vette City flea market in Bowling Green, KY. I just knew this thing was going to have bad idler tires when I read about it on Studio Sound Electronics. Imagine my surprise when I plug it up to a TV for the first time and see a crystal clear picture! I was also surprised that this machine has no idler tires at all. I looked it over and found only gears and two belts. The capstan belt and loading belt are just fine. I got this nice, fully functional VCR for only $7.00. :banana:

For a minute there I thought you had scored a sideways-loading unit and transposed two digits in the model number. Still, nice catch. I don't think I had ever seen another VCR with a RAT keypad.

Do y'all want a screenshot?

Those JVC/Zeniths were great VCR's. I still have a sideways
load job that my Ma & Pa owned. Prob 50 hrs on it. The later
Gold Star/Zenith VCR's were blah........
The first year JVC/Zenith had a HiFi unit VR5000 IIRC.
The HiFi audio could kill you it was so good especially through a quality
tube amp. Special effects also at that time were beyond belief. We
put on a copy of Red Dawn & frame by framed it when someone shot
an RPG through a door. Very interesting watching a fake missile
running down a thin wire.
Twas the cats ass at the time.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I've put about five hours on it recording, and the head drum is extremely LOUD! It has a very audible electronic whine that gets louder and quieter as time goes on. What the heck could be causing this? Is this VCR reaching the end of its useful life? :no:

I've put about five hours on it recording, and the head drum is extremely LOUD! It has a very audible electronic whine that gets louder and quieter as time goes on. What the heck could be causing this? Is this VCR reaching the end of its useful life? :no:

I had that same exact VCR for a while (I had gotten it from a friend of mine who I used to go to church with who was an A/V techie back in the 1970s-1990s ) and mine did that as well I believe its fairly normal operations for those old Zeiniths as they are early 4-Head VCRs and the early 4-Head assemblies were a lot heavier than the 2-head assemblies which put a little strain on the head motor assembly which is why it whines like it does, but its not failing, if it were failing you wouldn't be having that good of picture with playback, you would actually have issues with video dropping out and audio sounding tinny and muffled if the VCR's heads were failing.

Nice find! I worked on several of those back in the day! Good quality!