Tascam 44-OB

[greg3340]

Just picked this up from a local home salvage guy..... While I have a couple of 3340's, THIS is a different animal.
Powers up.... Capstan tire needs to be replaced (havent found one as yet? Seems all ads I see are for the earlier model.
Simple testing sugests the take up reel is dragging on the brakes. Manually holding the tensioners up, this one turns for few seconds then stops.

Checking in with those more familiar........... appreciate any help, thoughts...

Supposedly have found and orderd the replacement tire from eBay........

Further testing, holding both tensioners up manually....... dropping the left tensioner starts the left reel.
Slowly dropping the right tensioner to a point just before it engages the STOP solenoid, the right reel kicks in (seemingly at FAST FORWARD speed. but it does function?

Ill check back after I get a tire on the pinch roller!

 

[SkywaveTDR]

Don't get push on rubber as that is a joke. Terry's rubber rollers in MI is the place to get them re-rubbered. That is where I send them. He may have new ones there too. The 44OB is a servo tension deck so your experience with others as in lifting the tension arms do not tell you the same thing. A stuck brake can be the result of a sticky brake solenoid noise mitigation washer which can be decayed rubber. I take them out clean up and put two layers of felt in there. The 44OB deck requires you use a Tentelometer to set the tensions. The brake problem will be observed by taking off the top front panel that slips behind the head cover- head cover comes off too at any servicing. I own two of these.
The Tachometer rubber is also soft or decaying as well - Terry does them all but he is slow due to Pneumonia he just had. http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/
Terry's roller are as close to a new roller as you can come the other ones on E bay are either old or Polyurethane which will not last long and has no benefit beyond Terry's as I have tested them.

 

[greg3340]

Further testing, while simply observation based, suggest the brake on the take up reel is equal to what was observed (and felt) on the other hub.
I DO find it interesting that the take up reel reel will only run in the one exact spot on the tensioner lever.
It currently neither plays ( of course…. Without a pinch roller tire) nor does it FF or REW. The reels will go with no tape mounted and loaded.

I guess at least for test purposes I’ll await the cheap tire and see what happens, or doesn’t!

 

[SkywaveTDR]

When a deck is in no tape mode which is stop mode there are to be no reels rotating. If there are that means a shorted drive transistor or a cap associated with that. The servo tension of these need to be adjusted according to the manual and like in the X1000R the optical reference go off due to people snapping tape on the deck. I am always putting those back to 5 Vdc and then setting the tension with the Tentelometer- usually after changing out the carbon trimmer for Cermet ones. The 40 series deck have a different voltage but you need to have it that way as well. These are complicated machines and if one is not up to the task they will need to bring it to a Technician all of them I know are packed with units. If you find one that is not there is a reason for that. You can do some tests without the Pinch roller like the edit balance test but if motors are rotating when they should not then you have other problems in there.