Sony FH7 - thoughts and belts

[MyOhMy]

I have been referring to this guide again today....my fat fingers are having trouble hooking the large fat belt around the flywheel. Very frustrating.

You get a sense of the complexity of these beasts when you work on them.

Buy yourself a cheap sent of dental tools on ebay, infinitely easier for jobs like this. Once you have a set you will wonder how you managed without!

...............................or, until tools arrive: Bend a paper clip to shape with a small hook on the end - forget former fat fingers frustrations forever!

 

[turnip]

I was using the paper clip....the issue was I had disassembled too much and there was too much movement so the belt could move around.

I could never be a dentist...no matter how much money they can make!

 

[hopey]

Try a bicycle spoke

 

[turnip]

Hey guys....I have added the new belts but haven't got the deck functional.

FF & Rew work Ok ( maybe a bit slow) but the head doesn't engage and the capstans don't spin in Play even though the flywheels turn.

Have I messed something up?

 

[caution]

Turnip are you sure you're not suffering from the magnet problem Superduper mentioned?

The sensor on the counter is a hall effect sensor, it uses light to determine that the 'windmill' is rotating & keeps the motor & heads in the play/rec position & indeed is the autostop mechanism primarily

Nick on this unit it's actually using a photo interruptor
A Hall effect sensor generates a small voltage pulse when a magnet passes by it, such as the M70 and M90.

 

[turnip]

I think that is working OK...but I'll check again tomorrow. Cheers

 

[MUTE AUTO]

It's beautiful. There's one playing. The tape door is broken. Want to repair,

 

[H3NK3L]

Thank you for the guide, helped a lot to rebelt mine (and access the FF solenoid tat got stuck with dirt/old grease), fully functionning fh-7 mk1 now

PS my trick after 30 minutes of nerve-challenging pickering : put the capstan belt (the large flat one) on the "play/idle/noidea what the other one (the small one next to it that goes to the white wheel) on the white wheel, which is higher up and kindof in the right place to keep the large belt in the middle of the capstan, a then put it in place (over the capstan), and after that, just pull it - just like you said -over the motor-ring from there, saves a lot of time (and not-to-be-spoken-in-the-presence-of-childrer-although-they-know-them words)

 

[H3NK3L]

Hey guys....I have added the

@turnip, do you have a "clicking" sound, and when facing the player do you have a bar on the right hand side (control button side) that slides up and down a few times (when hitting play as well as when hitting FFwd) ? (and no issues when being in REV mode)

 

[DPaignall]

some thin silver tights material and she'll look new.

Hi T-ster,
Bought my first pair of tights!! Thanks for the idea! How did you manage to get the metal grill off of the carrier please? There are a couple of retention clips that look like they need to be broken to get the grill away.

 

[H3NK3L]

Sorry for turn in subject - i seem to have an odd "level indicator" problem when recording to a blank tape.

Here s the thing :
- prerecorded tapes, playback works fine, level indicator works fine
-recording to blank tapes : recording works fine, volume level is fine, while recording to tape the level indicator works fine, but...
- when playing back the recorded tape, the level indicator just drops to a 1 led maximum

No idea what's going on, as whilst recording the indicator works fine, and when listening to the recorded tape the volume and sound is great, only.. The leds seem to not move further than the first one. Real odd thing is when playing a prerecorded tape (even real old ones), level indicator works fine

(when I sat level indicator I m talking about the one on the cassette deck)

If anyone has any ideas... Its not a big issue as there S no problem with the recording / sound /.. Its more of an annoying esthetic issue that boggles my mind?

 

[technoir]

It's actually not that hard to change the belts. Even me, a guy with two left hands as we say in france can do it.
I'd like to add one thing about the FH7 cassette decks and the mk1 specifically. There are been several changes between the very early models (until feb 1983) and the later versions (still mk1). Electronic boards were a bit simplified probably to lower the cost and there are some significant changes in the gears mechanism. I suspect they changed the gears system because it was a bit fragile. Beware when you buy a non working very early cassette deck with the plan to repair it.

 

[stynger007]

So i had a chance to grab a Sony FH7 a while back from Northerner, he was so reasonable price wise and i had bought from him before so jumped at the chance. It arrived last night, i fired it up and had a listen, wow good sound, solid bass and lots of clarity, that was just on radio with no stereo lock (or at least no light), line in sounds even better, so far , so impressive.

Whilst the box was cheap the reconstructive surgery on the hernia and slipped disks lifting it won't be, jeez this thing weighs a ton. Now i don't usually do 3 piece but i had to see what these were all about, but, if i'm going to have one it had to have a working tape deck.

I cracked it open last night but peered inside and thought "nah i'll leave that", well with a day off today and nothing else to do i jumped in. I could find no guide for this so I have pieced together a rudimentary guide in case anyone else searches for this.

I'll start by saying the rebelt isn't too bad but care is needed as there are some incredibly thin wires on the side of the deck controlling its complicated mech. Also, a set of dentists tools or other thin device with a hook is helpful. The actual re-belting is like surgery!

I only decided to take some pics halfway through so bear with me.

Easy bits first, side off, rear cover off, exposing the inside. I then unscrewed the two screws holding the main board in place, with care this can be moved to one side a little. This is seen on arrow 1.

Pop the deck open and look at the sides to see the door clips, slide the door up to remove, set aside. Undo screws underneath deck to remove front face being careful to unscrew the tape selctor led board, set to one side. (Its out of sight but you can see its ribbon cable in arrow 4. Unscrew black panel inside tape deck to expose underneath, its held on by one small black screw.

View attachment 29914

I then removed the two screws holding the board on the back of the motor area, arrow 5. This is just to allow access to the screw holding down the flywheel cover so you can slip the belt over.

Its not shown but you can then remove the top plate over the top of the deck held on by 3 screws.

The board holding the play/fwd/rew keys can be taken off by the two screws, tape counter the same. Tape counter can be moved to one side and play/rew/fwd board draped off to the side. Arrows 2 and 3.

Next remove the screws as shown in red circles, the lower two indicate screws underneath.
View attachment 29915

The deck should now move freely. If it does not I may have missed an odd screw so double check. Gently flip the board over and look for the board on the rear of the motor.
View attachment 29916

Bottom left corner of this board (as looking at it from rear of deck) you will see a screw holding on the flywheel plate, this can be loosened or removed to slip new flat belt over. Once done you can gently flip the deck over and fish down through with your dentist tool to pull it up through. I cleaned all the deck and relubed while down this end to, plus changed the small belt that end.

Once flipped over looking down though the deck from the motor end you will be able to fish up the flat belt and attach to motor spindle plus attach the other belt from motor to fwd/rew pulley. Just push the small fwd/rew belt over the visible pully and fish it up to the motor the same as you did for the flat belt.

The arrow below shows the approx screw location to loosen flywheel cover and the direction to turn the deck to fish it through.

View attachment 29918

Relocate the lead for tape select LED down the side of the deck and sit deck in usual place to tackle to counter belt. There is a belt here that is important as without it play is pressed but it shuts down immediately, it turns a kind of windmill through a sensor. This operates the auto stop i believe.

Here is the fan/sensor
View attachment 29919

Attach a new belt from right hand tape spindle to fan assembly, if you have it give the sensor a blast with compressed air, this removed a lot of dust for me. I then reattached play/rew/fwd controls and tape counter and ran a new belt from windmill/fan spindle to counter.

Tested all was well and reassembled. It's a beautiful deck and made even my shitty test tape sound great. I cleaned all rollers, head, demagnetized etc once i was happy with it. I happen to have exactly the right belt so minimal adjustments were needed but they are all documented in the service manual which i recommend getting from Analog Alley. The motor has a proper adjustment point as well as adjusters for the various cams, motor speed, head raise height etc. Dont mess with any of it without the manual.

View attachment 29920

View attachment 29921

I just need to re cloth the front of the speakers now, i'll pick up some thin silver tights material and she'll look new.

I hope this helps people in the future and i wasn't too long winded.

The CFS 9000 same, thin wires. Twist one too many times and oh oh. Pictures before is important. Nice unit, and great explanation.

 

[turnip]

@turnip, do you have a "clicking" sound, and when facing the player do you have a bar on the right hand side (control button side) that slides up and down a few times (when hitting play as well as when hitting FFwd) ? (and no issues when being in REV mode)

I have another one now....and have this problem. mech moves up and down and goes into reverse and back. Rew seems ok.

(I lost my others units in a recent flood).

Any ideas?