Hitachi TRK 8600HC

[donahuest]

Hello. I have a hitachi trk8600 hc with a cassette deck that doesn’t work. Does anyone know of a good repair shop in or near London Ontario Canada? Thanks

 

[BoomboxLover48]

We can help you fix it.

If you are a little handy you can do it by yourself.

I have several pictures that can be of help.

 

[donahuest]

Hi Boomus.
That would be much appreciated. I was tempted to order the service manual and give it a go myself but was a little scared to mess it up. Although it would be a lot more rewarding and cheaper to do myself. I have a JVC RC-M70 that i brought in somewhere a while back and they charged me $110 CAD to replace the belt.
I've just got into collecting boomboxes a year or 2 ago. I think I'm going to give it a go.
Everything seems to work except the cassette player. Do you suggest just ordering the belt and going from there? Also do you know what size belt and where to purchase? Thanks a bunch.
Trying to post pic of collection so far?

 

[Northerner]

$110 to change a belt!...jeez no wonder we end up doing them ourselves! I’ve done an 8600 before and I don’t remember doing it which generally means it wasn’t a nightmare lol

 

[Fatdog]

Trying to post pic of collection so far?

There's an FAQ for that:

https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/21759-faq-how-to-post-images/

 

[donahuest]

Thanks for the help in posting pics.
Here’s the collection so far. Going to be going to a lot of garage sales.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

Sorry for the delay!

I will look up for the belt sizes soon.... and post pictures I have.


Putting the front cover with speakers was always tricky and I know an easy way to do it. The cassette operation feather touch wire connector is so short and initially it was so hard for me to connect it. Then the cassette door got jammed. I will explain all that.

I am now caught up with work.


Here are some pictures and belt sizes. Pulley is a double pulley with a flat belt and a square belt. Flat goes on the flywheel and the square one on a plastic pulley. The tape counter belt size is missing. Fort that I used one from the assorted belts we can buy from Ebay. Those assorted size belts come handy all the time.

All other belts I bought from https://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/belts.htm

Fly wheel double pulley belts

1. Medium Flat Belt 9.60"
2. Medium Square Belt 10.00"

Other plastic pulley belts

Medium Square Belt 4.3"
Medium Square Belt 8.6"

I had some trouble with the belt ordering and had to use one additional belt from my assorted belt kit.
I can't remember what was wrong with the size.


I think the whole cassette section is held with 4 or 5 corner screws. When you take the cassette section out unplug one or two connecting plugs. Note the record lever that is now coming near the end of the record switch. This has to go back above the record switch. After removing the cassette section you can squirt Deoxit in the long record switch and push it several times to clean it. My VU meter was not working because of that dirty record switch. I will also post a pic of now to remove the front cassette control feather touch switch assembly soon.

If you pull out the flywheel to lubricate the capstan bearing, careful.....there is a flat washer right under the flywheel. It is so easy to lose it.

Flywheel has gears underneath. Gently push it down so that it will not mess up gears and align perfectly.

Make sure to take pictures of every step when you disassemble. Pictures help a lot!

Let us know if you have questions. There are lots of good people here to help!

Do it slow and steady.... no rush!

When you finally put the front cover..... cassette button section on the front will not align perfectly with the feather touch white buttons underneath and play might not work or rewind ...

Now you can remove that front section by pressing up and down on the front cassette button section. The whole section will come out. Then you can perfectly align it from the our side front of the box.

I will post pictures of it...soon..

 

[Nickeccles]

Love these images of the mechanism - very useful for those of us that haven't seen the model before!!😊

 

[donahuest]

Thanks for the pics and tips. I’ve taken apart a couple Walkman but that’s it, never a box this complicated. It looks pretty overwhelming. Might get at it next week on my days off.

 

[MyOhMy]

If you search the forum like I did you'll find threads on this and I also started a thread on this which may be helpful.

 

[BoomboxLover48]

If you search the forum like I did you'll find threads on this and I also started a thread on this which may be helpful.

Christine! You are the best!

Thanks for sharing that link. There is lots of information there we shared.

 

[MyOhMy]

If you search the forum like I did you'll find threads on this and I also started a thread on this which may be helpful.

Christine! You are the best!

Thanks for sharing that link. There is lots of information there we shared.

But you were the Star, Royce.