Atari 1010 repair help

[rchennau]

Hello fellow Atarians. I am working on repairing a Atari 1010 cassatte that I 'won' in an e-bay auction. The hunk junk is slowly coming back to life. I've replace the belt, cleaned the heads and all contacts and the beast is mostly working. However the tension on the drive mechanism for the buttons appears to be to tight. When I push any button all the way down to 'lock' it down the gear wheel pops down and thus the gears cease to turn and no happy Atari joy.

 

If I gently press the fast forward or reverse down and hold without 'locking' the button down all works well. Because the tension on the button mechanism is so great pushing play simply ends up in a tape eating mess.

 

Suggestions?

[rchennau]

After carefully disassembling the drive I think I 'might' know what are causing the problem(s).

 

First there should be (IMHO) a small cap nut thing on the bottom of the middle size wheel/gear to prevent it from falling down into the 1010 housing.

 

Second the spring wire on the tension tape wheel is WAY to tight and that is jamming up the tape.

 

Now since I'm not a mechanical type of person I've really no idea and just kind of guessing at things based on what I see.

 

The challenge with 'fixing' the first problem is finding the right size cap/nut that will fit into place and second trying to further disasemble the tape mechanism further to acctually fit the cap on.

 

The second problem seems a fairly simple matter of bending the tension wire a bit so it does not apply so much pressure. However, that seems like a bad hack and there should be some built-in tension screw or something.

[Rybags]

Maybe post photos of what you think are suspect areas. Then someone with a good one could check against what yours looks like.

[rchennau]

Good idea. Here are the pictures of the drive and problems one and two.

 

The medium size gear/wheel will simply fall out when any button is pushed down all the way to the lock position.

 

The tension wire against pushing the 'friction' wheel against the tape seems pushing to hard.

 

 

 

Maybe post photos of what you think are suspect areas. Then someone with a good one could check against what yours looks like.

[Rybags]

There normally should be a reasonable amount of force pushing the pinch roller against the capstan.

 

I might be able to pull my unit apart later and check a couple of things... I have no idea on the condition of mine, chances are the drive belt might fall apart the first time I try to do anything.

[1050]

Good idea. Here are the pictures of the drive and problems one and two.

 

The medium size gear/wheel will simply fall out when any button is pushed down all the way to the lock position.

 

The tension wire against pushing the 'friction' wheel against the tape seems pushing to hard.

One thing that might foul up your plans for rescue is that I think there are two styles of 1010 with a different tape mech in them. The buttons are in different orders for each style, mine has left to right, record, play, rewind, advance, stop/ej, and pause. Yours should be a different order as your pics don't match with my 1010. Close but no cigar, I won't be able to help unless I got more than this one lying around. We would like belt numbers and store names/links if you got those - TIA.

[tjlazer]

So does it work now? Saw another post where you did not know how to autoboot a cassette. (press play, and hold down START when turning on Atari and then press RETURN)

[rchennau]

So does it work now? Saw another post where you did not know how to autoboot a cassette. (press play, and hold down START when turning on Atari and then press RETURN)

 

It works as far as the computer control. Meaning CLOAD wiil start to 'play' the motor and everything mechanically works until either the wheel/gear pops down or the tape gets caught up between the pincher roller and the capstan.

 

I went to my local Orchard Supply and Hardware store thinking to cobble together some kind of solution. I purchased some really tiny C-clip looking thing but would still have to disassemble the entire mechanism to install it. Even then I'm not sure that is the 'right' solution. My second thought was to create some sort of pillar underneath the gear/wheel with a ball bearing setting on the pillar thus holding up the gear. A real hack but one that I think would to the job as long as there is not to much pressure on the gear/wheel.

 

Right now I am Retr0Brighting the case. I figured since the entire thing was in pieces anyway I might as well give it a good make over. First time with Retr0bright so I am crossing my fingers. End of the story; I am having fun so who cares if the whole things blows up or melts down.

 

But any advice is greatly appreciated.

Edited September 6, 2009 by rchennau

[rchennau]

Update: I was able to fashion a little pillar out of an electric wing nut and a nail. I simply filed down the wing nut and inserted a small nail into the nut with the sharp end poking through the top. It is just tall enough to prevent the wheel/gear from falling down. I would still like to know why the wheel/gear is falling in the first place but that mystery will be solved later.

 

I am able to rewind and fast forward with no problems.

 

Play still seems to be a problem. The pincher roller and capstan have enough tension to roll the tape but the right spindle does not turn thus the tape gets backed up into the front of the cassatte player near the capstan. It seems to me that the right spindle has to turn in order to real the tape in. Unfortunately I can not figure out why it is not turning. When I press play there does not be any gears that move into to place to catch the gear that rotates the right spindle as is the case with rewind/fast forward.

 

My 1010 cassatte is a Hong Kong model so if anyone has some pictures or can look in their field service manual to give me some hints that would be great.

 

BTW: The Retr0bright treatment worked awesome. At first I couldn't tell a difference until I put the cassatte door next to the case (I had forgotten to Retr0Bright the door). I'll post pictures later...

[rchennau]

Today I recieved another Atari 1010 recorder manufactured in Hong Kong. I opened it up and the mechanism is different from the one I have! Doh! Different enough at least as to not give me a specific clue as to why the spindle will not turn. However I think it is some small gear I can not see underneath all the metal. I'll open it up further now that I've a new spare.

 

Photos attached.

[Rybags]

I've got the same mech/board as the one in the bottom part.

 

Looks like someone's already had a go at it - on mine there is a tamper-evident screw (with red goop over it) in the hole on the top right part of where the motor is mounted - note that it's intact on your one in the top pic.

 

I also notice - one of the button's "pushers" has broken on your bottom one, mine has 2 like that, and the same fix applied, ie drill a hole and use screws to do the job.

[rchennau]

I've got the same mech/board as the one in the bottom part.

 

Looks like someone's already had a go at it - on mine there is a tamper-evident screw (with red goop over it) in the hole on the top right part of where the motor is mounted - note that it's intact on your one in the top pic.

 

I also notice - one of the button's "pushers" has broken on your bottom one, mine has 2 like that, and the same fix applied, ie drill a hole and use screws to do the job.

 

I was having trouble with the middle gear/wheel popping out (I fixed it) but I'd love to know how it is supposed to stay in. Just a guess but there are two plastic pillars on the drive that are the same height that just barely reach below the middle wheel. It seems to me that would be a great place to lay a holding bracket to keep the that middle size wheel from falling out. I wish I had noticed it earlier because my home hack would have just needed a thin piece of plastic vs. what I did (described above).

 

Amazingly the belt on the top 1010 is not in a gooey state.