Repair Reel Table Assembly

I have painstakingly rebelted my freshly acquired Sanyo M9998, only to find out that the things that sit on the reel table spindles are partially disintegrated. Not sure why, but this boomer seems to have been in damp storage for quite a bit that might have made the plastic brittle, amongst other things.

I have kept the broken bits, thinking I *might* be able to superglue them back together, but that seems impossible now. For one thing, I tried to glue the outer pieces directly onto the reel table spindle, but it seems that the outer piece's diameter is actually wider. Maybe so it can move up&down freely? Why would it need to anyway? They're spring-loaded, so there must be a reason, but not all my tape decks have this. It didn't stick, and it really seems too fragile to be superglued. Maybe some cement-like glue that hardens would do the trick? Thereby fixing the outer ring onto the spindle, assuming that will work.

Any other way I can fix this? The reel table assembly itself seems very unique, as in it's different in every tape deck I've seen, even in another Sanyo that's from roughly the same time period. The parts cannot be ordered anymore (looked up the part #'s from the service manual). So I'd need an entire other M9998 just for these silly parts?

Common fault - I used a set from a dead Panasonic RX series box - same exact part but in Panasonic quality plastic (better).

Don't glue anything please !!

Details of the thread I posted earlier this year:

Hi Guys,

Well I've got to admit to giving my newly acquired and fantastic sounding Sanyo M9998K a real workout over the past month or so - you know what they say, 'Use it or loose it'!

As fellow owners of fulling working M9998Ks will agree, the best part of this model is the deck. Although the tuner sounds nice and the line in works ok (although slightly lower sensitivity than other boxes), both don't compare to the sound quality of the tape deck.

This Sanyo is also my 'recording deck' to produce tapes for my other boxes to play. The sound level and quality is just so spot on - even with my crappy TDK D90 tapes!

Anyway, through all of this use, a 'fault' as developed with the deck. One day, after rewinding and then playing a tape, I noticed the left cog was allowing the tape insides to flop around. This didn't affect playing a tape but I could no longer rewind a tape. Of course, this fault had to develop the day I was over at Scotty's place for a mini meet! Turns out the reel plate assembly (supply side) drive cog had shattered (3 pieces). It was a strange fault as the part had split into the 3 pieces that had then fallen neatly into the bottom of the box without leaving a trace!

I then remembered receiving my first M9998K when I first started collecting. I noticed that both of these parts were missing from that deck too. All you could see was the spring and the 'plug' that once held the now missing part in place.

Anyway, when I got home I raided my 2nd M9998K (another parts box) for a replacement part. Ok, part fitted and everything's fine now right?---- Actually no, as this replacement part did the same trick - that's right, after 10 minutes of use, it split into 3 neat pieces that also fell into the bottom of the case! Ok, don't panic James, just fit your last part from the parts box and your luck will surely change! Whilst fitting the 3rd replacement part, I managed to drop the 'plug' part that retains everything into the case! I grabbed a plug from my parts box - no go, it's a slightly different part and doesn't fit! Anyway, after I pulled and then replaced the chassis, I've now got my lost part plus six pieces of broken plastic. Ok, after re-fitting the plug, and then playing and then rewinding a tape, I now had a third part cracked and lying in the bottom of the case!

I carefully checked to see if something else in the deck mechanism was amiss thus causing the broken parts but everything looked perfect. So I parked up the big Sanyo whilst I searched for a replacement part. After having no luck sourcing this super rare part, I sort of gave up on the old girl

Until today that is. Whilst I was doing a workshop clean up, I went to move my National RX-C48F parts box and decided to take a quick look at the deck.


I'd checked all my other Sanyo boxes for a replacement part for the M9998K but no luck. Turns out, I hadn't bothered to check a Panasonic for this part....... Yes, the deck part needed from this particular model National/Panasonic is identical in appearance and size to the Sanyo part!
National deck:

The only difference being, the quality of the plastic of the Panny part is superior. I had noticed that the Sanyo part was sort of soft when you put slight pressure on it. The Panny part is solid as a rock in comparison. All the other parts (plug, spring etc) are different but the drive cog part is identical.

So the Sanyo has now played 10 tapes non stop and is working a charm.


So on the off chance that other members experience the same weird fault with their M9998, forget hitting up your other Sanyo model units for the part (none fit), one of your Pannys might just save the day!"

Oh, Good news, thanks Jimmy! There's plenty of the panny rx's going around, should be able to nab me one of those. Do you happen to know which models have the same cog? All the rx's? Also, do you need to disassemble the m9998 completely to get the reel table assembly out to replace the cog?

Oh my! See how helping Jimmy is
Another great and valuable member here on this beautiful site!

stragulus said:

Oh, Good news, thanks Jimmy! There's plenty of the panny rx's going around, should be able to nab me one of those. Do you happen to know which models have the same cog? All the rx's? Also, do you need to disassemble the m9998 completely to get the reel table assembly out to replace the cog?

Click to expand...

You just need to remove the black 'plug' on the end of the spindle shaft, slide on the cog and replace - easy!

You'll need to find a Panny with an auto reverse deck with feather touch controls. My other RX boxes with a basic deck has different cogs that won't fit the Sanyo.

Good luck,

James....

Yess you are right, they came right off, excellent! Thanks so much James!

My Sharp GF-8989 appears to have identical hexagonal plugs, but slightly different cogs, but I'm not going to sacrifice that beauty. The hunt for cheap pannys is on.

SANYOs are great boomers but I'll never own 1 myself since the decks are absolute clockwork nightmares. I would rather throw one in front of a train instead of facing a re-belt on any 1 model. Now, before you gents get your nickers in a bunch, I am JOKING!!!!

Last time I made a joke about hurting a LASONIC, I never heard the end of it......jeesh!!!

Cpl

Cpl-Chronic said:

SANYOs are great boomers but I'll never own 1 myself since the decks are absolute clockwork nightmares. I would rather throw one in front of a train instead of facing a re-belt on any 1 model. Now, before you gents get your nickers in a bunch, I am JOKING!!!!

Last time I made a joke about hurting a LASONIC, I never heard the end of it......jeesh!!!

Cpl

Click to expand...

I've rebelted a fair number of decks, recapped a few boxes, replaced tuners, pots, sliders etc but I've never tackled an M9998K deck! I took the easy way out and just bought one that had recently has the deck serviced! The M9998 deck is a great sounding - simple piano key setup and super reliable. The deck in my Hitachi TRK-9150 is almost as nice sounding and feels as rock solid as the Sanyo deck.

James.....

I think the nightmares of replacing the belts in these decks are slightly exaggerated! Sure, the first time I opened this box (My First Son..Sanyo) and I saw all those wires going everywhere, I thought I would never get it back together. But you can actually get at the belts without having to remove the main board which makes it way less painful. Sure enough compared to the sharps and hitachis I've had my hands on it is way more complicated, but don't let that discourage you!

I'm not looking forward to the recap though, getting that mainboard out seems like a giant PITA with all these soldered wires. I'll do that once I find a donor for the cogs. Eyeing a Sharp GF-8989 on ebay right now for that which might go for an acceptable price and also provide me with better parts for the one I already have

Even my vintage GURU down the street shuns working on SANYO decks. If it isn't his to keep, he won't even bother doing a re-belt, so from that opinion, I gather they are a nightmare of over-complication. He had an opportunity to sell a Big Ben but didn't go through with the sale because the time he would have to spend on fixing the deck wasn't worth the 1200 US sale he would gross on the transaction....

Cpl

If you look at it from a commercial standpoint, then yeah, it's probably not worth it compared to the easy boxes like the sharps. But if you would litterally make $1200 just by rebelting a deck I'd think it would be worth the 1 to 2 hours you'd have to spend on it. Assuming you could do it this fast with some experience under your belt (you can do the m9998 under an hour).

If I were in it for commercial gains though I'd probably choose a different career path! There's no real money in this business, a few lucky finds aside.

All I know is he hates working on Sanyos specifically for some reason & you can't even pay him top dollar to do them. Just flat out refuses & he's repaired amps, reel to reels, boomboxes, juke boxes & by far his least favourite to work on are,.........Sanyos. He's known as simply JVC on the St2Go site, not to be confused with JVC Floyd....

I think some of you may know him or bought boomboxes off of him so I trust his experience in this.....

Cpl

stragulus said:

I think the nightmares of replacing the belts in these decks are slightly exaggerated! Sure, the first time I opened this box (My First Son..Sanyo) and I saw all those wires going everywhere, I thought I would never get it back together. But you can actually get at the belts without having to remove the main board which makes it way less painful. Sure enough compared to the sharps and hitachis I've had my hands on it is way more complicated, but don't let that discourage you!

I'm not looking forward to the recap though, getting that mainboard out seems like a giant PITA with all these soldered wires. I'll do that once I find a donor for the cogs. Eyeing a Sharp GF-8989 on ebay right now for that which might go for an acceptable price and also provide me with better parts for the one I already have

Click to expand...

I've seen the easier method of changing the belts but what if you want to do a proper deck service lube etc - that deck has to come out - big job.

Yeah ok agreed, that would be a total nightmare. The amount of wiring in that box in a relatively cramped space is absolutely insane and I see how that would only be worth your time if you really, *really* want to do that for your own sake. Or, charge a small fortune.

Spaghetti:

Moar:

Some more:

MORE:

WHEN WILL IT END:

Ok, so I bought this rather ugly Sharp GF-8989 on ebay just for the two cogs and because the tape buttons were in better shape than my own GF-8989. Put the cogs on the sanyo, and they fit without issue Of course, the very next day I walk into a goodwill and what do I see there? An old Teac V-40 cassette deck. Out of curiosity I checked it out, and sure enough it has the very same cogs that also fit

The sanyo doesn't play though. It rewinds, forwards, amss seems to work, but when I press play it plays for half a second and then stops. It doesn't seem to engage the take-up spool at all. Since it works for fwd, the cogs are just fine though. Some more fault-finding to do

Cpl-Chronic said:

SANYOs are great boomers but I'll never own 1 myself since the decks are absolute clockwork nightmares. I would rather throw one in front of a train instead of facing a re-belt on any 1 model. Now, before you gents get your nickers in a bunch, I am JOKING!!!!

Last time I made a joke about hurting a LASONIC, I never heard the end of it......jeesh!!!

Cpl

Click to expand...

I totally eat my words when I downplayed your comment. Where's that train? Finally found the issue with my deck, an idler wheel has its idler tire broken and fallen off. To replace it, I have to get the deck out of my m9998. To get the deck out, I have to completely disassemble the beast, and that's one giant spaghetti feast. Probably requires desoldering a bunch of wires too. If I would have known this, I would never ever have picked up this box.

I wonder how many of these are actually still alive and fully functioning. It must be a rare find!

Yup I rebelted and make a couple of repairs to my Sanyo M9998 and it was quite a job, I had to stop around midnight (after starting at 7pm) and come back to it the next day. Most repairs can be done with no desoldering, or in my case just 2 wires if you are comfortable working in tight spaces but it was a massive bitch.

Sure is. I did get the deck out with 2 wires desoldered indeed, and took lots of pictures in order to be able to re-assemble the thing again. With the deck out, replacing the idler tire is a piece of cake once I will find one of the right size.

Despite the off-putting spaghetti mess the build quality of this box is excellent. Other than the few brittle plastic parts they certainly didn't cheap out on everything else.