Thank you for the nice feedback. The wire idea is a good one. I did get a replacement gear and although I haven’t used the vcr in a while I believe it’s still working.

The puss control knob is threaded but it’s a reverse thread. So turn it clockwise to undo it.

Pause control.

Glad it helped. I lubricated mine now a couple of years back and it’s still running smooth and quiet.

I think that must have been the video that inspired me to tackle the screeching noise. In all honesty I lubricated the cable with a penetrating oil two years ago now and the noise is still completely gone. If by chance it does come back it’s a quick fix to remove and relube the cable. I’m sure the new cable will work too, but my fear is that after a year or so I would need to lubricate it as well. Either way it’s a pretty simple fix!

It’s a pretty simple repair. Mine has been noise free for over a year now. If it comes back I’ll just pop the cable out and relubricate it. Good luck with your repair.

I’ll have to check and see where I got the transistors. It was 5 years ago now. I noticed another problem with the deck that you may want to look out for. I noticed it was playing older tapes I had slower. I was able to determine it was slow by 3% since I had created an alignment tape when I bought it new somewhere around 1980. I went over everything to see if it could be the idler slipping or the pause lever dragging and I determined that the motor was just running slow. I even replace the motor capacitor and there was no change. My solution which is still working was to wrap the flywheel (on the 7 1/2 speed) with two layers of electrical tape very carefully minimizing any sort of seam. It works fine but is a bit noisier than before. I guess a new pulley would be best but the reality is it doesn’t get used that much.

I checked Digikey and the 2SC1815 is &1.33 in single unit quantities. I also checked Ali Express and you can get 100 for just over a dollar and a couple of dollars for delivery.

Hard to believe there are folks still watching this video. I used a blue coloured crazy glue but I guess any cyanoacrolyte adhesive would work. You should really try to get a replacement gear though. The glue didn’t hold for long and I ended up ordering a replacement gear after only a week or so of use. I wouldn’t advise gluing the gear today. Best to find a replacement.

@@larryh8072 Thanks. People will still watch it if it is still relevant to them. I blew off the dust my VCR recently in order to play an old tape I knew I had and wanted, but the VCR ate it. Thus I discovered the blue gear was broken.

I believe I put the supplier details for the blue gear in the description. To the best of my knowledge this is a super common problem and the gear should be available still. Also, not sure if you follow 12voltvids on KZbin but he shows how to do this repair much better than I did. m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHnMi5iDnJ2phcU&pp=ygUOU29ueSBibHVlIGdlYXI%3D

Good luck. It’s not difficult at all. I can pop the cable in and out in no time now. I was a bit intimidated at first too but it’s straight forward.

@@larryhuff3383 OMG! That was SOOOOO easy! I raised the seat to full height and full back, put a magnetic light under the seat to see, used a fork to pop out the cable and put the new AU$33 cable in, ends first and it popped straight in. Bam. No noise. I'm gonna get a quote from Mazda today, just to see how much they intend to rip me off. And thanks, no need to disconnect my Battery.

So glad this worked for you. If it gets noisy again you likely won’t need a new cable. I have yet to buy one. I just pop it out and soak it in penetrating oil and pop it back in. The oil I used this time seems to be working great. It was just a little thicker than the WD40 I used the first time.

I rewatched the video and now I remember. The oil I used last was actually thinner and works better. It’s actually a penetrating oil.

It wasn’t necessary to disconnect any electrical connections so it wasn’t necessary to disconnect the battery.

It’s shouldn’t be too difficult. The 74193 can be programmed easily by setting the load pin low. What ever is on the data inputs (ABCD pins) will be set. I think if you use the carry out you should be able to set the counter to 1 after the count of eight so the count would start with 1. Hope this works.

I always like when no parts are required. I’ve since had to relube that cable and it’s still working fine. This time I used a thinner oil. I can now remove and replace that cable almost with my eyes closed.

Sounds like you’re making progress. I would check the tape present switch and the mode switch next. There is likely more videos on KZbin for this type of failure. I just used this vcr for the first time in about 5 years and it still works great. Good luck...

Thanks I have seen some stuff on the mode switch. I'll keep at it. My biggest frustration has been that I can't seem to figure how to remove the board completely. So far I've done all the work underneath it. It's still attached at the top left. It looks like there are 2 things plugging one board to the other but they are seemingly hard to reach with my hands if they unclip at all. First time working with board like this so I may just be being too gentle. To get to the mode switch I'll have to figure it out though. Not enough room on that side to just reach under!

Glad you found it helpful. So far my vcr is still working!

Glad it helped you out. I just like fixing stuff and if I discover something cool I’ll share. I still have that vcr and as far as I know it’s still working!

Not sure about quality control. I think its just a poor design and I'm betting that all the seat mechanisms suffer from this fate in time.

I’m really only guessing but I would say no. It’s an NTSC player only as far as I know.

I had the same problem when ordering from sources in China. I bought two drives that didn’t work. I believe they were salvaged units. I contacted the fellow in Germany and he claimed the units he had were NOS and unused. I can’t remember how long ago I repaired the CD player, maybe a year or so ago. The player is still playing great with no errors. Not sure if he still has any units left but they worked fine for me.

@@HoserRocker Hello Sir thanks you for the reply I'll contact Classic Service Parts to see if they can source a NOS unit

At 3:14 I talk about the 555 timer circuit and after that I discuss the counter circuit. The output of the timer circuit connects directly to what is labelled clk in on the counter schematic. Hope that helps.

Sorry to say I’ve never experienced that problem. I’m not even sure how the ejecting process works. When I get a chance I will check into it.

Hopefully the gear is still available from the supplier I linked in the description. I believe KP Components is located in BC Canada. kpcomponents.co/products/sony-3-736-147-01-gear-replacement

I thought it was worth the risk of a copyright strike. Its a go to for me when audio testing.

I made that video 7 years ago Dave so unfortunately I’d have to do find that VCR and take it apart to answer your question. Wish I could be of more help but I’m glad my video helped you at least get this far. Good luck. I’m sure if you made it this far you can do it…

The deck is still working well however I did discover that the speed was actually running slow and I unfortunately didn’t document this repair. More recent recordings were fine but when I listened to some recordings from 40 years ago I noticed the deck was running slow. An original test tape I had made with an 800 hz tone confirmed the deck was slow by 3%. I replaced the ACmotor run capacitor and verified idler, belts and everything were all good. No change in speed. In various forums I read that induction motors can slow naturally with time. My fix was to increase the size of the pulley on 3 3/4 and 7 1/2 to compensate. Of course getting a pulley made is the real solution but 2 layers of carefully wound black tape is working for now.

@@larryh8072 Hi Larry. Glad the tape deck is working - good idea, until it gets sticky! Personally, I would not touch the pulleys - although I have thought of this myself, and glad I didn't capitulate to the idea! ;o) Just some general thoughts - (1) To know which speed is correct (to within, say ±1.0%, or even ±1.5%) you'll need a true reference tape - not easy to source? (2) If belts are used to drive the capstan, then the thickness of the belt *does* alter gear ratios - something I've discovered. As much as ±5% from my experience, but that's from 1970s (induction motor driven) cassette decks, a similar figure will apply to R2R I'm sure? (3) Also check the motor bearings, although to be fair it would take some friction to slow it down by 3% IMO. Are they sealed? I bought some recently, they can be got easily. Thanks for your reply. PS: I try not to take much notice of forums, a lot of folk just spread the same gossip, information, and unintentional disinformation. ;o)

Well I spent an entire day on the speed issue and true I didn’t have a reference tape but I did have a tape that I made the day I bought the deck new with an 800 hz tone and 12 kHz for head alignment. In comparison to theat tape the deck was running 3% slow. The belts for this deck are actually just “O” rings that I sized and purchased at a local fastener supplier. So the thickness is not really an issue. And as far as the motor goes, yes, it was disassembled and meticulously cleaned and lubricated. This finally led me to the fact that the motor was simply running slow. I was quite honestly going to just leave it because the deck really gets very little use. In the end I decided to tackle it as I had some live recordings from the early 80’s that I had not digitized yet. I was pretty happy with the drive pulley taping that I did. The tricky part is to have a seam that is virtually seamless to get the lowest running noise. I did quite well on the 7 1/2 speed and not quite as good on the 3 3/4 speed. I quite agree with your comment on the forums but after an entire day I came to the conclusion that the motor was simply running slow. I made another tape once the speed was corrected and I now play that tape and check the speed occasionally to see if there is any drift. So far no change! I’ll likely do a video of that the next time I have the deck apart. I’m sure there will be more repairs in the future.

@@larryh8072 Hope you don't mind me replying again, and apologies if you know some of this anyway. ;o) I've just been looking at the service manual for your TC-399. And it appears that the capstan is driven by a belt. My suggestion is to - identify that belt, take it out and measure its cross sectional dimensions. If it's a square belt - find other belts with both smaller and larger cross sectional dimensions. Eg: if it was 1.8mm x 1.8mm, then purchase a 2mm x 2mm, and a 1.6mm x 1.6mm etc. Of course the overall diameter must be the same. If it's a rounded cross sectional belt, then try the same variability of size. Sony do make provisions for 'tweaking' the speed on this machine in the service manual - there are 7 different motor pulleys available for both 50Hz (UK), and 60Hz (US) mains frequencies. However, you may find these difficult to source which is why I'm suggesting tweaking the drive-to-capstan belt effective widths. If you are still uncertain, remember in the maths that 'connects' the speed, there is a gear ratio, and we may define the most salient part as D1/D2. Adding a belt to the pulley does alter the *effective* diameters of the pulleys D1, and D2. And if we were to reduce (or increase) the effective values of D1 and D2 by some constant, say ±0.1mm, ±0.2mm etc, the ratio does not remain the same. {Except when D1=D2, then no change.} It really is worth a try if you can't source new motor pulleys.

All good advice. Anyone reading this thread should check a few things before resorting to pulley or belt changes. Check the idler pulley surface and ensure it isn’t slipping, pause lever belt tensioning is correct, motor run capacitor value is in tolerance and of course verify the motor bearings are lubricated. Basically rule out all of the other variables before condemning the motor itself.

In many cases the belt that is used to open and close the tray would age and fail. This would lead to a variety of sensors not correctly messaging and so it would fail to read or spin up. There is another youtube video showing the replacement of this. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYG7m2dpfp16prs&ab_channel=MarkieW63. I hope this might help.