Your Electrohome is probably made by Mitsubishi. Since you said it has never been opened up before, you will need to order new belts and pinch roller, as well as idler tire.

http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/mbk-29.htm

The tire is extremely hard to change, but you will get an instruction manual to put it in.

if it's extremely hard to change, I think I'll save that until it stops working totally lol

Yep you have to disassemble the whole reel drive assembly that is that black piece referred to. I can do one in about half an hour. I've done many of these. I always replaced the idler arm assy, not just the idler tire, with a genuine Mitsubishi part. Probably no longer available. Have fun!

Long live my 1979 tapes!
 

My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1500 in 1979. I still have tapes I made back in 1979 and 1980 including the original 1980 NBC '50 Years of Television' special complete with commercials, a NOVA special on the DC-10 from 1980, and 4 hours of recordings from the 1980 Winter Olympics from Lake Placid, with ads. I always made all of my recordings at SP for the best quality.

I recently played these tapes on my current VCR and they all played back perfect, after almost 30 years!!!

So, who wants to bet my DVD recordings I made on my DVD recorder using DVD-R disks will still play 30 years from now. From what I am reading, the film used in the DVD blank disks will fade within several years and will cause digital errors to the extent the disks will not even play.

Kind of ironic in that my original intent of buying a DVD recorder was to archive my non-commercial (home recorded) VHS tapes to DVD. Now I am finding that I need to keep the VHS tapes as archives and use the DVD copies for watching!

John

My thoughts exactly. My first VCR was a Panasonic PV-1000 and I too have old tapes from '78-'79 on, that still play fine.

Another thought.. all the TV captured on tape from the '70s, '80s, and '90s up until DVRs took over, and that kind of archiving won't exist in the future with no more VCRs and all hard drive based DVRs...:scratch2:

I love to find stuff like that; I have some Beta tapes I found from '82 or so. Some of them look as good as live. I've thought about getting a DVD recorder but I really don't trust that they will be permanent. Heck, I've got some paper-backed R2R tapes that must be no newer than 1950? Sound great! (to my tin ear, at least)

I opened up the Electrohome, only to be greeted by, LITTERALLY, a shag carpet of dirt. I seriously can't believe this thing has been working in that condition. You could have planted potatoes inside the damn thing.
But that speaks volumes for the durability and reliability of VCRs of the era.

I vacuumed it out (yes, I had to use a vacuum, with the brush nozzle), cleaned it up, and it might just be my imagination, but it just seems to work better to me.

Oh, and another VCR I have that will probabally last forever... my main VCR, which is a Panasonic stereo 4 head model. It's only 4 years old, but VCRs made in the 2000s are known for breaking down within the year, so this rig's going pretty good.
But Panasonic does make some good stuff.
I bought it brand new for $100.00, which is litterally a steal for a VCR of it's quality. And it's just a VCR too, it's not some damn DVD/VCR combo. Probabally among the last standalone VCRs ever made, and definately the last good VCR ever made.

I hadn't planned on buying a DVD recorder. but I did so recently just so I could copy some things I taped years ago.

My tapes were always stored in a closet out of the heat until Katrina. For about 2 years afterward they were in a non air-conditioned workshop. When I brought them back into the house, some of them had visible mold (white dust) on the tape reels looking through the top. Many of them (with or without the mold) have suffered serious degradation of the video quality. I am also having to run the head cleaner through the VCR way more often than before.

We didn't get a VCR until Christmas 1991, and I recorded a lot of stuff up until 1997, so I'm talking about tapes that are 12-18 years old, all name brand, recorded at LP & SP.

My oldest VHS tapes are from June, 1983, when I rented a Sharp VC-9500 VCR to tape my brother's high school graduation in Reston, VA. We attended the ceremony, & our local cable company played the tape of this several times over that weekend on the public access channel.

The tapes cost me about $10 EACH(Maxell T-120s), & I filled up the second tape with Looney Tunes & Walter Lantz cartoons off of WDCA. I have always used the SP speed for best picture quality, & those tapes look quite good today. The sound is only average, as VHS Hi-Fi hadn't been introduced yet(that came in 1984) & the Sharp had the usual mono linear audio track.

I have found that nearly all of my circa 1,000 VHS tapes play well today, for the simple reason that there are too many of 'em for any one tape to get played too often-so wear is minimal. And I do burn various VHS tapes to DVD-R for friends & family, on my Pioneer DVD recorder. I have no illusions about any DVD-R or CD-R discs lasting 20-50-100 years, regardless of any "aging tests" by the manufacturers. This why I still use a VHS Hi-Fi VCR for tapings off of TCM, IFC, etc.(as well as 'events' like the recent election). I feel IF you get good tape stock(current fav is Sony), a viewing copy on DVD-R will suffice for distribution & the VHS "master" gets stored away til needed again. I had wanted to get a nice JVC SVHS VCR for better picture resolution, knowing that digital TV & DVD-Rs would take over, but by the time I started waving money around retailers no longer had any in stock :(

I've been looking for a Sharp VC-9500 for more than 5 years on eBay but with no luck so far. :tears:

Waltchan and everyone else here: I also own a Sanyo VHR 1900. I need what is called a “Reel Motor”. At least that’s what I think it’s called. The Part numbers on the bottom of the motor are V-02500 and underneath that 860620 11. I scratched the label getting it out so the V-02500 is no longer ledgeable but I made note of it a while back. This part number / motor number may also be known as 4527V02500 or SO4527V02500. Also a 4527V02400 may work. If you know where I can find one or a complete VCR with one in it…I’m Looking. Here is a link to some pictures of the motor. Thanks Yall http://img850.imageshack.us/slidesho...id=motor4n.jpg

The link in my above post is to an album containing 5 pictures of the motor I need.

If the motor does not turn you might be able to revive it with some oil and or grease. I was able to fix(it was still a tad sticky but did work) a motor on a top load beta deck in that manner once.

Yeah Tom...I think that's what I'm going to have to do. What type grease? I'm thinking maybe some white lithium or even standard bearing grease or dilectric like I used to use on plug wires, rotor buttons, etc. I took the motor apart and cleaned up the brushes and adjusted them so they make better contact. It now runs but it's a little louder than before. When I removed the houseing I was not expecting plastic washers to fall out. So I don't know exactly where they go although I don't think they are critical. Lubrication definately sounds good though as both ends of the shaft are dry as a bone.

I have 2 vcrs. One is an old panasonic top loader, the other is a digital dvhs jvc deck that records and plays back hdtv. Hate to say it but for playback the dvhs deck is much better even on my old tv set, mainly because it has a built in time base corrector. But for reliability the panasonic wins.