Sony SLV-575UC VCR not loading tapes properly
 

Hello Everyone about a year ago I purchased at the Goodwill I'm currently working at (I didn't work there when I bought the unit) a Sony Prosumer Grade VHS Player Model SLV-575UC that was working perfectly when I last used it a month ago, but now all the sudden when I went to try and use it tonight to watch some newly acquired NOS Red Skelton Tapes that were still sealed in the original packaging but for some reason the tapes wouldn't play and the Real Time Counter wasn't working and so I took the VCR apart thinking maybe it was a bad belt and sure enough it uses the same toothed belt as the old Sony Betamax VCRs do, and the belt was in excellent condition yet so I buttoned the bottom of the case back up and took it apart and checked the top side with the tape loaded and sure enough only half of the loading mechanism is working, the right side take-up arm works but not the left side one, and the captsan roller arm doesn't engage the tape properly with the capstan pincher/counter wheel assembly. So does anyone on here have any ideas as to why a Sony Prosumer Grade VCR would all of the sudden stop working correctly after only a month of sitting unused? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Levi

Sounds like the TU load arm gear broke. Look at the botton of the mechanism and see if the gear on picture #1 is cracked or in 2 pieces. (A triangular metal plate has been removed to see the gear in the picture.)

Good luck finding a replacement.


Or, the half-load arm is stuck, seized from the old grease. See picture #2. That spring-loaded arm should move freely with your finger.

Alright, I'll take a look at those things tomorrow when I get off of work.
I'm kind of curious though how this thing could of started acting up like this in just a little over a month's time, because the last time I used this VCR which was a little over a month ago when me and a friend of mine watched a movie on my LCD Projector in my basement on this VCR, it was working just fine.

That gear has constant spring tension from a spring that fits inside the gear which eventually causes it to crack or break in two.

The half-load or "pivot" arm as called in the picture can get stuck from just sitting, as the old grease will turn to damn near glue!

OK, I noticed on mine that the gears you're talking about on the bottom are covered with a PC Board of some sort. Did you have to remove a circuitboard to get to the gears underneath?

I was speaking in general terms about that mechanism. Some models were accessible from the bottom, others you have to remove the mechanism as an assembly from the top.

I always used to unplug the connector and ribbon cables shown in the picture still connected, to completely move the board out of the way.

btw all pictures I found in minutes by Googling the model number and searching "Images". Very handy.

OK, well you were right the gear you spoke of was broken, it was cleanly broken in half, I was able to glue the gear back together with some special plastic bonder glue that was made by Loctite so hopefully it will hold. I'm guessing that this gear breaking in half like this is quite common on this and other similar models made by Sony?

Yes very common.

OK, I was curious because interestingly enough I saw this same exact VCR in the e-waste pile in the basement of the coffee shop that I used to work for which was a drop-off point for an e-waste center owned and operated by the organization that owned the coffee shop I used to work at. I'm wordering if that VCR I saw in the e-waste pile at the coffee shop I used to work at had the same problem which was why it was broght there by its previous owners.

Maybe the broken gear, or perhaps the seized half-load arm that pulls the tape to the CTL head so the counter can count. Repaired many of those back in the day. Used to order 20 gears at a time, until they became discontinued.

If that glue holds the plastic gear together with the spring inside the gear under constant pressure like it's supposed to be, I want to know the part number for that glue! Might be handy stuff to have.

Me and a friend fixed a VCR with the same mech and same gear problem. It was an S-VHS deck with 1000 in it's model #. I glued the gear back together with super glue, let it dry for 15 minutes, put it together and it seems to have held up decently. I sold the deck to my friend a few months back after we fixed it, and he has not complained of failure so it seems to have held up.

Good to know super glue will hold that type of plastic. When I did it for a living and charged customers money, and had to guarantee the repair, I never tried gluing a gear. But nowadays you have to improvise.

I did have a few Sonys that developed a loose pressed-on worm gear on the load motor shaft and rather than have an estimate declined to replace a very expensive assembly, I would take the motor out, file a flat spot on the motor shaft, degrease the pulley and shaft and apply a tiny bit of JB Weld. I knew that sucker ain't spinning on the shaft again!

Oddly enough I tried gluing the gear back together using a glue specifically formulated for plastics made by Loctite and unless I wasn't doing somethiing right with when I was applying it the plastic broke right away even after letting it cure out over night. And I tried to see if I could try and glue it back together again but it seems that the glue "melted" the areas around the breaks to the point that it doesn't fit back together cleanly anymore. :sigh:

Welll my glue job on my gear didn't hold up like I thought it would sadly enough. And I went to look on ebay to see if I could find a parts unit and sure enough they had about 15 of these VCRs listed on there but all of them wanted over $300+ for them, there was one VCR that had a video dropout issue but otherwise a mechanically sound unit for $29.95 buy it now price, but they want $35 for shipping which I can't justify that to my mother. :sigh: