I picked up a $5 Emerson VCR 964N at Salvation Army last week, and by no surprise, it does not work. Symptom: It will not load tapes.
Before I recycle it (which the city will charge me for) I thought I'd try my hand at repairing it. Upon removing the cover, I discovered a piece of candy had somehow fallen into the cassette basket (not sure if that's the right terminology) and was leaning against the tape head (image below). Sadly, removing this did not solve the problem--actually, it's probably a good thing it didn't load tapes! But lesson learned: Keep your car clean from debris when transporting equipment.
Next, I tried inserting the tape with the cover removed. The loading motor is spinning, but the loading gears are stuck.
I suspect the lubricant has all dried up, since I can help the gear by spinning it with my finger while loading. If I help it all the way, the tape fully loads, but then the roller guides don't take up the tape.
Do you think the lube is the issue here? How involved will it be to re-lubricate the gears? I'm not sure what kind of lube to use.
By the way, this is mainly a learning exercise for myself. If I can't fix it, then I'm out a few bucks and a little bit of time. Not a big deal. Though, there is something satisfying about fixing old broken equipment.
candy-in-vcr.jpg