Tascam 302 Forward Play Issue

[Greg Ney]

Hello! I just picked up a 302 dual cassette recorder and at having an identical issue on both sides. When I try to play forward it engages, stalls for a second, and then switches to reverse play and plays fine in the opposite direction than intended.

FF and REW work perfectly in both directions.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Greg

 

[SkywaveTDR]

The play going to reverse is a take up problem with the right side reel table. It is detecting the end of the tape even if the end is not reached. The 302 is made with a chinese transport not very reliable and if you try to buy a new transport they do not even sell you the right one. It is different. The system makes used a flywheel assisted transport and these with harden dried grease can be trouble. See if the take up of tape in forward is happening if not that is where work is needed.

 

[Greg Ney]

Thank you for the quick response. I appreciate it. I pulled the entire "Cassette Mech Assy" out of the unit and closely inspected it. All wheels, motors appear to be spinning well. The belt is in great condition and based on everything I could see, it looks to be in excellent shape. The other side also looks to be in excellent shape, but I did not inspect it as closely.

It's odd to me that this is happening identically on both sides and appears to be some sort of sensing or electrical issue? Is there a setting that I may be missing? Is there a sensor that "detects the end" that could be faulty? Is there some common link between the forward play of both sides that could be damaged/faulty?

Thank you!

 

[SkywaveTDR]

This unit since I worked on one from a Radio station that is still here and junked was not very well built. This is not a typical Teac transport but a Chinese design as you would find in a Ion type product. This then lessens the possibility of fixing it. If I remember correctly reel rotation on either of these mechanism are IR bounce like detectors as Sony used also. They fail once in a while- they usually work if the fast wind is working as if they were out altogether then the fast wind would also stop. I ask myself why do people work on this stuff without consulting the service manual or schematics as it is all right there. They have the manual at Hi Fi Engine now.
The end sense detection is done in one IC called U500A and U500B which would indicate it is a dual op amp. It is a BA10393 and pin 1 and 7 are the outputs. So if the power supply is out to this IC or both sensors then it could cause this. It could also be that the mechanism is not having any reel drive in that a rubber part has cracked and fallen off or like one Sony deck I had that was very old the reel table was frozen due to bad oil.

 

[Greg Ney]

I appreciate the info. Out of curiosity, and before I decide whether to sink time and/or $ into the 302, what is a similar featured deck that you would recommend? You seem to be very experienced in this arena. If I can find one, I'll just go that route.

Right now, the 302 is doing everything I need, although not as efficiently as it should be as I can only record in the reverse direction.

Thanks, Greg

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I avoid all chinese made mechanism as they are clearly inferior. I restore and sell deck of the higher level such as Tascam 122 Mk II and Mk III as well as some other like the Tascam 112 Mk II. I have others that I have repaired and sold as well. Thinking you will just buy another deck and avoid all repair cost- well there are no good working decks out there unless they come from a well known Technician such as myself or Dan my associate. You can correctly assume that all decks on E bay and other such places are going to need repair. I never buy or even try to get dual well decks of any kind as they usually are nothing but junk. They were design with the high school girl in mind and these do not have very good common sense to avoid such junk. It is usually money thrown away- On client asked me why the dual cassette cost so much to repair- I told him there are two mechanism you have to tear down and ungrease and then regrease and this would take like 4 hours- Id the dual cassette deck worth $400? They are considered throw away.