Source for AG-1970 heads, parts?
 

I was looking for something AG-1970-related and found THIS. A place where you can allegedly BUY a new replacement head for the Panasonic AG-1970! Would the experts here look at this and tell me if you think this is real? I thought NO VCR heads were available anywhere, except used ones pulled from used VCRs.

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/pro...528/id-veh0480

I have an AG-1970 that still works, but heads are worn and pinch roller is uncomfortably shiny.

Could be real I suppose. I have an entire complete AG1970 parts unit that I'd sell you for $75 shipped within the USA haha. Pinch roller is in good shape, haven't really looked at the heads, but I can send you some pictures if you like. PM me if interested. A good portion of that would go to shipping no doubt, but I'd rather pass it onto someone that can use it over recycling it.

Sears is no longer selling VCR parts, you can place your order and they will cancel it saying the part is obsolete. Not sure why they have parts listed, I guess it takes too much time going through the inventory and deleting parts.

Did you guys do anything with your AG-1970's? I stupidly bought one off eBay a while back. It "works" but needs some major attention. Having a parts unit might help if you still have one you wanted to sell.

It's getting to where we all have AG decks that we want to fix. My own 1970 is probably more useful as a boat anchor right now. Does not work, in the way. And yet, I can't part with it, as it used to work flawlessly. No noise from PSU (unlike AG-1980s often do), clean picture (though inferior to 1980), played well. It doesn't power on now.

In terms of repair options:
- Deter refuses 1970 now.
- Aramkolt doesn't want to work on these either (from I recall in other threads).
- I just don't want to mess with Panasonic repairs.

So DIY is the only way now. But I have to say, Panasonic decks are beasts. I've seen lots of DIY attempts end in failures -- and the deck is left in worse shape, meaning even more irreparable after the botch job.

Aram is giving away his deck for $75 here (at least as of 6 months ago). That's a steal. So anybody that wants it should consider it. (Since I was 2nd owner to my deck, and know that it used to work well, I won't give mine away. But I'd consider selling it for the right price.)

These were $2k MSRP decks when new in the late 90s.

Just to clarify, I've never really worked on AG1970's, but looked at one enough to know that it is quite a bit different with a completely different deck mechanism, but I still do work on and sell refurbished AG1980's.

I would consider trying to learn those, but can't really justify it when I've got AG1980's that need work. I've also got lots of spare parts for AG1980's and I wouldn't have that advantage with the 1970's if they needed parts.

Aram PM'd me yesterday and I bought his AG-1970. I fired up my AG-1970 up yesterday and it's very clean inside and out (eBay over- cleaner?), the display is nice and bright and except for some mechanical squeaks when loading a tape it plays perfectly for about a minute then the video slowly goes out of sync (see the out of focus screen in the back of the attached picture) and eventually goes black. This is on the S-Video and Composite outs, TBC switch off. Maybe the TBC board needs to be recapped? I found the service manual in Post 7430 (LS that one needs to be added to the Service Manual Index Post 2668) and the TBC board is an easy removal by taking off the bottom cover. It's inside a metal shell and opening it I see the various caps which should be an easy recap. Better, I'll try the board from Aram's AG-1970 first. Unless the boards are identically bad this should be a good first troubleshooting step. If that doesn't do it I'll proceed slowly to see what else can be a board swap.

LS, every time I open a VCR I hear your warning about how many VCR's were ruined by people who thought they knew what they were doing. I have decent electronics skills (a BS from 40 years ago barely used) but good soldering skills and board level and schematic troubleshooting is OK. At some point I'll need to watch some YouTube videos on proper lubrication and cleaning of the cassette mechanism. But I will take it slow.

I'm fortunate to have bought my AG-1980 (TGrant) and HR-S9800U (eBay) in 2018 and both still work perfectly. But hoping to fix up this AG-1970 for "someday" and worst case maybe it's a good learning experience for the next deck I find in need of repair. I did just inherit 200+ VHS tapes (some amazing!) from a couple who didn't want to throw them away so I'm going to be at this for a while!