Broken Sony SLV-696HF

[Eric H]

Picked up this Sony VCR the other day, they had two identical units in similar condition, I took the one with the higher serial number because I figured it was newer, if only by a few weeks.

I could only power it up and see if it would run a tape in the store, it did, no way to hook it to a TV to see if it had a picture.

Tried it at home, had sound and a blue screen, problem turned out to be the tape wasn't being pulled out on the left side, the lever wouldn't retract far enough to get behind it.

If I poke the lever back with my finger then drop the tape it works great!
Beautiful picture and sound.

Turned out to be a broken gear on the left lever, must be common as they are easily available from several places like MCM.

Problem is the gear is only about $7 (what I paid for the unit) but they want $10 to ship it, that's pretty s'pensive.

When all is said and done I could have bought a cosmetically excellent SLV-900 from the Goodwill for about what it'll cost to fix this somewhat cosmetically challenged unit, if I fix this.

Anyone here have a NOS gear to sell?