Jammed cassette assembly on Asahi RD-831

[spatterlight]

Picked up this wicked little three-piece boombox at the thrift store last night, an Asahi RD 831 for 15 bucks... it seems pretty rare, couldn't find much if any info online, but it looked like a beaut. Totally compact, clean lines, really defined bass for such a midget. The cassette deck was playing like a monster and I was listening to tapes all night, but the thing jammed on me at like 3 AM. One side of the cassette ended, I tried to eject, and the cassette door opened but the tape was stuck inside... the mechanism wouldn't disengage.

For the record, Asahi boomboxes really hate the Cure.

I managed to wiggle the tape out eventually, and found that I couldn't insert any new tapes -- there suddenly wasn't enough room to fit them in. Hitting eject again didn't do anything, so I opened the box up this afternoon and pulled everything out of the chassis. It looks like the front part of the cassette deck, with the heads, idler tire and capstan, is stuck in an "up" position. I can move it down by pressing it with a chopstick or whatever, but it springs back up immediately. Pictures are attached. Anybody have any thoughts here? As far as I can tell, none of the belts are broken.

If anybody can help me out, I'll put up a bunch of pictures once I get the guts back into the chassis.

 

[saxonman]

that deck looks like the one i have just been repairing from my toshiba 8360 and that was doin just that couldn't find the problem but cleaning and replacing the belts seem to have cured it. mine would stay in the play position for just a few seconds then would would return! now it doesn't do that i havn't given it a long term test yet , i did it yesterday but it could be the same problem!!!


oh yer mine kept jamming with led zep 2

 

[baddboybill]

Looks to be an auto type deck. You should try to turn big wheel in back in the proper direction ( watch spindle to see if turning in play direction ) to get it automatically release. Once you do this you need to see if belts are to loose or if motor jammed and not working good luck

 

[spatterlight]

Finally pulled the boomer out of storage and messed around with the flywheel... got it back in working order within ten seconds. Thanks muchly for the tip.

 

[rumble_under]

let's see a pic of the box put back together