I'm having trouble rebuilding (frankensteining) a Panasonic AG-1980P deck. Everything is set ... except for one part.
First the image:
AG1980-unknown.jpg
That is a photo from the donor deck, not the frankenstein (unit being repaired).
At the back on the transport --
about 2/3rds towards the back of the deck when you're looking it at it from the tape gate side, and about 1/4th from the left -- there is a wire pair that is soldered (?) to a metal post that juts upwards. In fact, the only reason for the jutting bracket to exist appears to be these wires.
On the deck in the photo (and on most copies of this model), two wires are soldered (
red arrow), then wraps around the post (
blue circle), then curves back towards the board (
blue arrows), and ends with a brown connector (
blue square). If I had to semi-randomly guess what this is, I'd say some sort of ground.
Here's my problem...
On the frankenstein deck, one of the wires was desoldered, and the other got cut in half.
---- Do you see that zip ties in the photo, attaching the wires to the boards (stupid!). The frankenstein deck was a mess with multiple ties. And so tight that you couldn't maneuver anything. So I had no choice but to cut some ties. Again, stupidly tight, so tight that the tie cut into the wires. The clippers slipped, and snagged the wire. Snip! Crap.
Although there is a screw to the left of the jutting metal bracket, removing it does nothing.
On the frankenstein deck, the solder wires are actually soldered into a tiny piece of metal that's screwed into the jutting bracket. But most decks seem to be soldered into some sort of material with white edges (as you can see in the photo, pointed at by the
red arrow). So I cannot swap the wire-solder-header part. It's stuck to the jutting bracket that also will not come off.
What is this?
Do I even need it?
* That may seem daft to some folks, but video gear does sometimes have extra parts that are worthless. I've not plugged in the deck, randomly tested myself, because AG-1980P are expensive, and I don't want to zap it.
The service manual was worthless, I found no info on this. Neither the AG-1980, nor the K-mech manuals.
Aside from beating it to death with a sledge hammer, any idea on how to remove the jutting bracket?
Or is it as easy as taking a screwdriver to the white-edge material, prying it up from the donor deck, and regluing it into the frankenstein deck?
I hate AG-1980P. Amazing quality output, but the deck is otherwise a POS, PITA to service/repair.
Help?
