Sony SLV-585HF VCR help

[kx250rider]

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

[PacificStereo]

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.