Emerson VCR loading gears stuck?
 

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.

Attachment 17251

There may be a dried grease issue. But another common contributor is stretched rubber belts of which two are visible in your video. But before replacing the belts I'd check the greases arent gumming things up. For if they are, replacing the belts may only lead to breakage of the plastic gears.

BTW; the candy inside may be the work of a small child. Various household items used to be found by VCR technicians inside VCR's in for repair, apparently inserted by small children at the "posting" stage of development!

How many toy cars, toy soldiers and especially Lego bricks, me and my colleagues, found in VCRs...

But how did the candy end up in the right-up corner of drum head?
It almost seems to be positioned by hand.

Oh interesting!

Yes, the belts look a little dry and brittle and are definitely slipping, so maybe the gears are not the issue. I just ordered some replacement belts.

The lube doesn't look dried out, and the gears spin smoothly when spun by hand, but I ordered some super lube just in case. How do I tell if the lube is dried out?

From what you say the grease is OK. The other compounding problem can be the plastic parts themselves becoming more brittle over time.

"cassette basket" = transport

Motors often fail, so no power to spin anything. Or weak, not strong enough to move loading mechanism.

$5 was too much. But that's a 50%+ sale, the going price for broken Goodwill crap decks is $10+ in most places now. I have several that I bought in 2019 for $9 + tax. I have fun plans for those in 2024 finally. :devil: