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The good old days of serviceability...
Brian Jojade:
I have an old Tascam 122 audio cassette deck that's been sitting around for a while. Of course, the belts deteriorated, so I got some replacements and put them in. Quite a bit of disassembly required, but stuff is human sized, so not too tough.
Well, after putting it back together, I found that it would play for a couple seconds, then stop. That's annoying. Double checked everything and couldn't see any connections I missed. Did find this little round magnet about the size of a dime with a hole in the middle I didn't recognize. Cute magnet, though it was a stray on the bench from something somewhere.
Anyway, couldn't figure it out and dug around and found the actual service manual from 1981. Wow, this is a SERVICE manual. The amount of detail that they go into is simply amazing. They not only describe what each process is supposed to do and which components do it, it also includes the theory as to WHY it's done! CRAZY!
Most service manuals I see today basically say it's broke, get a new one!!
Anyway, initially, I was expecting that the machine was stopping because of some electrical failure or overload somewhere. The service manual explained what things needed to be in place or it would trigger the stop circuit. It showed me what to measure and where. Everything seems to check out. Then I accidentally hit the 'pause' button and the motors kept spinning instead of stopping. Hmmm... A few more pages into the service manual and I find the page that shows how they detected end of tape. There's a circular magnet that triggers a reed switch on and off as the pickup reel is spinning so it knows it hasn't run to the end and stops.
Wait, that cute magnet is round! Well, low and behold, I find that little reed switch and the shaft the magnet needs to go back on and magically the tape deck works like new again!!
Without such a complete manual, there's pretty much NO chance I'd have figured out why a tiny little round magnet would have been needed, or where to look to put it back to make this thing work.
That's the end of my happy story today.
Carry on.
Bob Faulkner:
We should be keeping those older manuals as a reminder of a better time.
Tim Weaver:
A lot of my learning came from reading old EV, JBL, and Altec literature from way back in the day. I was reading manuals from the 60's to the 80's while I was in the 2000's trying to make all that old stuff keep working.
On that end I have owned a 62 Ford Falcon (3 on the tree!) and a 67 Ford Galaxie and those manuals taught you how to do all sorts of service and emergency repair.
Tim McCulloch:
--- Quote from: Tim Weaver on January 26, 2023, 10:00:38 PM ---A lot of my learning came from reading old EV, JBL, and Altec literature from way back in the day. I was reading manuals from the 60's to the 80's while I was in the 2000's trying to make all that old stuff keep working.
On that end I have owned a 62 Ford Falcon (3 on the tree!) and a 67 Ford Galaxie and those manuals taught you how to do all sorts of service and emergency repair.
--- End quote ---
Oh yes. Back when there was real information in a manual wrapped in an education. dbx, Yamaha, Meyer, the brands you mention... any white papers.
Ah well, those rose-tinted recollections of the mythic past. 😱
John Roberts {JR}:
--- Quote from: Tim Weaver on January 26, 2023, 10:00:38 PM ---
On that end I have owned a 62 Ford Falcon (3 on the tree!) and a 67 Ford Galaxie and those manuals taught you how to do all sorts of service and emergency repair.
--- End quote ---
That's why they invented Hurst floor shifters.....
JR
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