Tascam porta one not playing or recording

[adam juresko]

severely disappointed as i just received this from ebay and was really looking forward to using it and it was described to be in fine working order. anywho, everything seems to be functioning fine except it doesn't play or record. from what i can tell the mechanism (sorry, not sure what it is called) that pops up into the cassette itself is stuck in the 'up' position so i can't even get the tape in or out. i manually retracted it to put a tape in to see if it would record or play with the cassette loaded but still it would do neither and it was a nightmare getting it back out. rewind and fast forward are working fine. any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!! i really want to use this.

 

[SkywaveTDR]

This is the same story I have heard a lot of times from owners that then send their Porta unit to me. I am not at all surprised about it's condition. The grease in the rotary mechanism needs to be cleaned and new grease applied.. This requires taking a number of parts off the deck and mechanism to gain access to the parts under them. New correct belts are also required not just some belts a guy sells from out of Germany. They need to be the correct size and width or no go. The Head base which is what is raised to play or record a tape needs to be free moving and is in fact controlled by the gear that I told you about with the old grease on it. The capstan motor will also need lubrication at the bearing with a better grade oil. I do all this and get the units I work on working perfectly. The Pause function on some decks is the hard part. If it does not work correctly it can be a worn tooth on the gear that is only resolved by replacement. You can not get this part for some time now. This only happens on some of them. Most people can work around the pause issue as in not use it.

 

[Ian Wellman]

Hey there.

I’ve got a similar issue. Hoping @SkywaveTDR cab help me with this. It could absolutely be user error as I am brand new to 4 track recording.

I just got a porta one and everything seems to work just fine. I hear a signal coming out of track one when I plug in my keyboard, but when I press the record button, it doesn’t play. The belt comes up to the bottom of the cassette, but then the stop button is automatically engaged and it just wont play. The same thing happens when I press the play button. I can fast forward and rewind, but not record or play. Hoping someone’s got an answer.

Thanks a ton.

 

[keef]

Hi,

Probably needs a new drive belt.
Kits available on eBay.

keef