Today I was playing my Silver C100 like always. Decided to use the top deck and almost fell asleep as it switched sides then played the other. Once it finished the second side I ejected it and decided to use the lower deck. After all, I enjoy seeing the Tape Run lights 
I had "The Doors" cassette in the lower tape deck and the deal was I would switch the power button off so when it was done with the tape it would shut down if I fell asleep. When I pressed play I was greeted with what you NEVER want to see or hear your Conions lower deck do.
So I pressed play and heard (clack, clack, clack, clack) endlessly. I sprung to attention and came out of my dreary state of mind. I've literally played 100 cassettes on this thing so I figured maybe I had the tape in on the wrong side and it was trying to stop. It continued to sound horrible clacking away. When I pressed stop it wouldn't stop. Just kept clacking and you couldn't even turn it off because the deck was keeping the box powered up. So then I had to spin it around and take out the batteries.
So now I have my tape stuck in the deck that won't eject, the stereo won't turn off and its making this horrible noise...GREAT :annoyed: So now I'm annoyed and completely awake. So ya'll know me. In the kitchen on the table it goes and off comes the back.
Good news is I figured out what happened.. Bad news is it is the worst thing that can happen to the deck and marks the kiss of death for it. I have been known to McGyver things to work but this was not what I wanted to see and required a gutsy move that couldn't be reversed and if it didn't work it was bye-bye lower deck.
Okay so what was happening? The deck was stuck in an endless loop where the heads would come up and engage then drop and start all over almost like a sewing machine. Sounded like a dang jack hammer.
What was causing this? Lets start with this picture:
In the Green square is the white rocker that slides down onto and pivots on a black plastic spindle that's hollow in the middle with a screw running down the middle of it to secure the white rocker and keep it from sliding upwards. Anyway, the black plastic spindle had cracked expanding outwards increasing its diameter causing two situations
1: The screw backs out and wants to fall out
2: The rocker (which is spring loaded) wants to raise upwards and/or stick due to the larger spindle diameter and loose screw.
Well when this happens everything goes to hell in a hand basket because that rocker is supposed to align with notches (circled in yellow) on the cam gear to keep the deck in play and to allow the deck to come to a stop. When that rocker gets loose or sticks it causes it to skip over the cogs on the cam gear and the deck keeps cycling and never stops.
I figured I could just replace the stock screw with a long one that wouldn't back out. Well that don't work because the crack expands and increases the diameter of the shaft and then the rocker won't move and sticks.
So what are my options? Well I thought about making a metal collar to slide over the plastic spindle so when the screw went down the middle of the spindle it couldn't expand and then drill the hole slightly larger in the rocker so it would then ride on the metal collar. Nope. Can't to that because the plastic is so thin on the rocker that drilling it out any larger would do away with any meat on the bottom of the rocker pivot hole.
Well...enough was enough and after an hour of hard thought I did the only thing I could think to do. Drill the hole one step bigger and hope for the best. When I drilled it out larger the bottom spacer half (that was thin) separated and I was left with two shaft pieces the top part with the thicker plastic and the lower half spacer at its original size that the drill bit kicked off the end. Basically it was now in two pieces sliding down on the shaft. So I just slid the bottom half on first, installed the spring and then put the rocker piece on top and ran my slightly longer screw in and tightened it to where everything was secure but the rocker moved easily and didn't have side to side or up and down motion.
Here are the differences between the screws (Gold is Original / Black is an old laptop screw I used)
This will happen to all C100-F decks as the plastic ages. So, if your lower cassette deck goes into and endless cycle loop you will know that is the clack of death.
Picture showing the repair and the new screw. I have played 3 tapes already and who knows, maybe this will last years or hours. One thing is for sure though. Once it breaks again it's over. That spindle is the plastic frame of the deck and connects using tracers to various other parts of the mechanism.
As before, this is going to happen to them all eventually. I hope someone can come up with a permanent solution in the future because this is going to kill the lower decks of our boxes eventually. I'll keep you posted on how well or poor this rigging works for the future
I had "The Doors" cassette in the lower tape deck and the deal was I would switch the power button off so when it was done with the tape it would shut down if I fell asleep. When I pressed play I was greeted with what you NEVER want to see or hear your Conions lower deck do.
So I pressed play and heard (clack, clack, clack, clack) endlessly. I sprung to attention and came out of my dreary state of mind. I've literally played 100 cassettes on this thing so I figured maybe I had the tape in on the wrong side and it was trying to stop. It continued to sound horrible clacking away. When I pressed stop it wouldn't stop. Just kept clacking and you couldn't even turn it off because the deck was keeping the box powered up. So then I had to spin it around and take out the batteries.
So now I have my tape stuck in the deck that won't eject, the stereo won't turn off and its making this horrible noise...GREAT :annoyed: So now I'm annoyed and completely awake. So ya'll know me. In the kitchen on the table it goes and off comes the back.
Good news is I figured out what happened.. Bad news is it is the worst thing that can happen to the deck and marks the kiss of death for it. I have been known to McGyver things to work but this was not what I wanted to see and required a gutsy move that couldn't be reversed and if it didn't work it was bye-bye lower deck.
Okay so what was happening? The deck was stuck in an endless loop where the heads would come up and engage then drop and start all over almost like a sewing machine. Sounded like a dang jack hammer.
What was causing this? Lets start with this picture:
In the Green square is the white rocker that slides down onto and pivots on a black plastic spindle that's hollow in the middle with a screw running down the middle of it to secure the white rocker and keep it from sliding upwards. Anyway, the black plastic spindle had cracked expanding outwards increasing its diameter causing two situations
1: The screw backs out and wants to fall out
2: The rocker (which is spring loaded) wants to raise upwards and/or stick due to the larger spindle diameter and loose screw.
Well when this happens everything goes to hell in a hand basket because that rocker is supposed to align with notches (circled in yellow) on the cam gear to keep the deck in play and to allow the deck to come to a stop. When that rocker gets loose or sticks it causes it to skip over the cogs on the cam gear and the deck keeps cycling and never stops.
I figured I could just replace the stock screw with a long one that wouldn't back out. Well that don't work because the crack expands and increases the diameter of the shaft and then the rocker won't move and sticks.
So what are my options? Well I thought about making a metal collar to slide over the plastic spindle so when the screw went down the middle of the spindle it couldn't expand and then drill the hole slightly larger in the rocker so it would then ride on the metal collar. Nope. Can't to that because the plastic is so thin on the rocker that drilling it out any larger would do away with any meat on the bottom of the rocker pivot hole.
Well...enough was enough and after an hour of hard thought I did the only thing I could think to do. Drill the hole one step bigger and hope for the best. When I drilled it out larger the bottom spacer half (that was thin) separated and I was left with two shaft pieces the top part with the thicker plastic and the lower half spacer at its original size that the drill bit kicked off the end. Basically it was now in two pieces sliding down on the shaft. So I just slid the bottom half on first, installed the spring and then put the rocker piece on top and ran my slightly longer screw in and tightened it to where everything was secure but the rocker moved easily and didn't have side to side or up and down motion.
Here are the differences between the screws (Gold is Original / Black is an old laptop screw I used)
This will happen to all C100-F decks as the plastic ages. So, if your lower cassette deck goes into and endless cycle loop you will know that is the clack of death.
Picture showing the repair and the new screw. I have played 3 tapes already and who knows, maybe this will last years or hours. One thing is for sure though. Once it breaks again it's over. That spindle is the plastic frame of the deck and connects using tracers to various other parts of the mechanism.
As before, this is going to happen to them all eventually. I hope someone can come up with a permanent solution in the future because this is going to kill the lower decks of our boxes eventually. I'll keep you posted on how well or poor this rigging works for the future
"The Clack of DEATH" :grim:
