GEC multitrack cassette transport | 4 | playback troubleshooting | porta one two 05 MT2X MT3X X-15

[@davidhayes8883]

Respect to you for being honest and giving credence to 3rd Island. You both give great guidance. May the 4 track be with you!

[@Drinkyoghurt]

Once again I find myself at one of your videos, and once again my issue isn't really what's normally the problem with these transports. It seems that my spring is fine, the plastic part is intact. I replaced all belts, removed goop that I could see (but didn't do an in-depth clean). What happens when I press play is that it often instantly just presses the stop button. If I hold the play button it will go through maybe 3-4 of those cycles but eventually engage the play heads and work normally. FF and RW work, Stop works, Auto stop works, Pause works, it's just this weird issue that I can't seem to fix. Any ideas on what might be causing it?

[@guitarhick]

hey tetrakan im still looking for that headbase part wrote to the CEO of teac america to see if i can get something happening. either some 3d blueprints or auto cad drawings so i can have it made myself. no reply as of yet. any news on the friend who was gonna make the part out of alliminium?

[@Tetrakan]

If you send me a message on Facebook I'll try to put you in touch with him

[@harryklippton]

That little black spring is a huge pain. I finally got it reshaped and working right but that means I'm gonna have to calibrate the azimuth since I had to remove the play, record, and erase heads to remove the black plastic part yeah?

[@ericyeschke4965]

Thanks for the helpful vids! Any tips on why the ff and rewind buttons on my porta two need to be held down manually? everything is rehabbed and working great but i need to manually hold these buttons down to make it work, usually they should stay pressed down until stopped.

[@Shawless000]

I was originally having an issue where the playheads wouldnt move up, whichI fixed by cleaning and regreasing the underside mechanism, as you highlight at the start of this video. Now, however, they move up, but the tape isnt being advanced? (though it can FF and RW) I'm thinking this is either a weak motor, or the playhead mechnism isnt going far enough up, so that the pinch roller isnt clamping the tape properly to move it? Firstly, do you think this is a feasible issue, and secondly, could you possibly demonstrate how close the pinchroller should be to the capstan so I can use that as a reference? Thanks !

[@Tetrakan]

The capstan and pinch roller should not be just close, they should touch. If that’s not happening it’s probably the plastic plate beneath the heads has broken and the spring below that needs to be reshaped, I don’t demonstrate that mod because I learned it from 3rd island so I tend to direct people to his video on the subject, but I describe the issue and related ones in more detail in this video youth.be/xyq1kRNx1aM

[@Shawless000]

@@Tetrakan That was the first thing i checked for my original issue, the plastic was only cracked so I tried my best to fortify with superglue. I may try cleaning and relubricating the topside mechanism with the three tiny ball bearings though. Thank you for the reference regarding the pinch rollers. I hope I can get this thing fixed...!

[@Tetrakan]

If the plastic is cracked you'll still need to do the spring reshape unfortunately

[@Shawless000]

@@Tetrakan sorry, should have mentioned, I did the reshape too!

[@Tetrakan]

Oh, then I don’t really know why the pinch roller isn’t reaching the capstan...try lubricating the bearings like you suggested, good luck and let us know what the solution is once you find it

[@jer0051]

Hey I’ve got a Tascam porta one that the fast forward and rewind work but the playback and record don’t engage, we tried checking the plastic piece under the heads and it looks ok, any ideas of what else it might be? Also the light button to cut off the lights on the vu meters doesn’t seem to cut them on and off, any help is appreciated thanks

[@Tetrakan]

The light button only works if you’re running off batteries, so don’t worry about that. I’m pretty sure this is the video where I describe all the other things you can do to solve playback issues, like replace the belt under the flywheel, replace the idler tire, shorten the idler wheel tension spring? Did you watch the whole video?

[@jer0051]

@@Tetrakan honestly not yet, we were just kind of clueless of where else the problem could be before we open up the rest of the transporter. Thanks for the response and the videos.

[@Shawless000]

@@jer0051 Defo try to clean and regrease the underside cogs, this helped a lot on mine (you can find this process in ep 3 of Tetrakan's series on the GEC transport

[@jer0051]

@@Tetrakan hey it’s me again and we have tried lubricating the gears and bearings, changing the belts, reshaping the spring under the heads, cutting the spring on the idler arm and it still isn’t engaging when I push play and or record, the play button just pushes in and cuts off most of the time but occasionally when we turn it upside down it engages for a little bit and chews up tape and then stops. You wouldn’t have any other ideas of what could be a remedy for this issue? Thanks

[@3rdisland477]

Thanks man for mentioing me in your video

[@Tetrakan]

No thank you. I was one of your first 60 subscribers, and your videos have been very helpful to me. I try to send people to your channel as much as possible.

[@guitarhick]

hey man great stuff where can i get a bas head replacement for a porta one . i cant fiind the broken part

[@Tetrakan]

You could just reshape the spring as per 3rd island's video. Or dm me on fb or Instagram and I can put you in touch with a guy who is machining replacements using aluminium

[@VANVASSS]

Thanks for the video. I’ve got that playback problem. When I push play it automatically stops after a second. The take up reel does not moves when push play and the safety mode occurs. Do you believe if I remove the idler close to the take up reel and clean it would works ? You are talking in this video about make a video of how to remove the reel base assembly. Do you believe will need ? If you can help me I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance @Tetrakan

[@LeonTrimble]

my porta 05 seems to work ok but after a while it seems the fly wheel starts to make a screaming sound... is it easy to fix that. e.g. just lubricate something?

[@Tetrakan]

I don't think I've encountered a screaming fly wheel, but I'd hazard a yes. Aging rubber goes really hard and slippy before it turns to goo, so maybe an old rubber part is slipping and squealing against an adjacent plastic or metal surface? Really you'll need to get the transport running out of the case and have a poke around and observe what's happening. Generally speaking, if you don't know for a fact the transport has been lubricated and all rubber parts replaced in the last 5 years, you should do that now - most transport issues clear up after that sort of basic mechanical service.

[@LeonTrimble]

@@Tetrakan i replaced the belts, but maybe it's a motor problem? it doesn't start immediately but always happens after a while

[@Tetrakan]

The belts aren't the only rubber parts, and they could be ill-fitting...also there seems to some confusion about where the sound is coming from because the flywheel and motor aren't very close together - it sounds like you need to do some more investigation to figure out where this sound is actually coming from? Let's say it is coming from the motor, I haven't encountered a screaming motor before, but if one arrived on my bench I'd open the unit and inspect the mechanical and electrical parts inside - I have videos about disassembly of compact motors, as does 3rd island among others.

[@LeonTrimble]

@@Tetrakan thx so much dude i'll strip it down and report back, if i can't sort!

[@VANVASSS]

I did the spring trick close to the take up reel in the back but not luck. Same as before, cannot get normally playback , always it stops automatically. Please help!

[@Tetrakan]

Remove the take-up reel and rough up the smooth edge with high grit sandpaper. Do the same to the idler tire. Remove the head plate and bend the long arm of the protruding black spring downwards slightly before refitting. These steps in combination with halving the length of the spring within the reel mechanism, hasn't failed yet, for me.

[@VANVASSS]

@@Tetrakanthanks for reply ! Ok I think the problem is the black spring and the black plastic but I don’t know how to remove it. I was thinking in another black spring and I was telling me … what spring ? Now I know what you are saying but I don’t know how to remove the head plate

[@Tetrakan]

I have detailed video on this go to mh channel home page > tear fawns by model > GEC transport

[@whispercafe1515]

Hey there! I've got a Porta Two that has Phones output that will only send audio to the left side. Panning doesn't seem to affect the volume. Any ideas what that might be?

[@Tetrakan]

First thing to check us the solder joints on the base of the headphone socket, these things are prone to breaking due to the force of the plug being inserted into the socket, if so just touch up with fresh solder. If the joints are okay get back to me for more suggestions.

[@whispercafe1515]

@@Tetrakan Thanks the response! Unfortunately, I've checked this and the solder points all seem solid.

[@Tetrakan]

It might be worth your time heating those solder pads and introducing some fresh solder to them since dry joints aren’t always obviously visible, but if that doesn’t work, the next step would be to reflow or failing that replace the opamp and bookending electrolytic capacitors which provides headphone amplification. I don’t have a schematic for that model and I’m flat on my back with a trapped nerve so I can’t check my own porta two but if you follow the traces or cables from the signal pins on the headphone socket you should arrive at a cap, then a dual opamp (8 pin integrated circuit, 4 pins per side probably) then if you look up the opamp data sheet and figure out which are the positive input pins, you’ll follow those back to another capacitor for each of the two channels. It could be one of the caps on the dead side is leaking, or one half of the dual opamp has failed, or just the tracks and solder joints connecting them are bad. The parts aren’t expensive so if you didn’t want to fuck around with audio probes etc, you could just solder in 5 replacement components without testing and the chances of solving your issue would be high.

[@Tetrakan]

If you’re not sure about audio probes or you want to see a practical example of this sort of repair (I filmed this sort of issue on a 244) check out the electrical troubleshooting playlist on my KZbin channel homepage

[@whispercafe1515]

@@Tetrakan Ok cool! Thank you again very very much. I think I'm going to try a few other things before doing a reflow, but yeah. It may end up being worth it to replace components because it is pretty annoying to not have a functioning headphone out. I'll let you know if I have more questions and if I end up fixing it! haha Hope you have a fast recovery, nerve stuff is no fun :/

[@RandomRetr0]

Have you ever run into a situation where the transport keeps trying to turn the tape even with the heads in stop? I did change the idler tire for an O ring of the approximate size. Could that be the problem?

[@Tetrakan]

I've found that the diameter of the replacement o ring is too big pause doesn't work properly, does that correspond to what you are seeing?

[@RandomRetr0]

@@Tetrakan yes! Thank you! One additional issue I'm having with the transport is it doesn't rewind, but it does play, forward, and record. Is that possibly related?

[@guitarhick]

hey bro tried to reshape the spring but no dice. you said you know someone making the plastic part out of aluminium sounds great why didnt they do that in the first place? please send any info on the metal bpart please and a million thank yous

[@Tetrakan]

Can do but not gonna share the dudes private contact info on the public Internet. Send me a direct message please. I'm reachable on Facebook or Instagram.

[@peterdoylemusic]

Hi, great video, I've just bought a Foster x 26 .. It was Rewind and FFwd but when I press Play or Rec nothing happens (cassette is loaded) .. any ideas where to start please? Thanks

[@peterdoylemusic]

it works when I press Rewind and FFwd but not when I press Play ie.. there is no movement of the mechanics at all

[@Tetrakan]

Simplest explanation would be the capstan belt needs replaced. Id advise anyone always inspect belts when buying old multitrackers.

[@aSpeaker2BlocksAway]

Hey man, if I power my Porta two, i get the sound of the motor without doing anything. I can remember you talked about such an issue. Something with the capstan right. is it fixable. Oh and my pitchcontrol doesn´t work. How is that? Peace man thangs for your effort.

[@Tetrakan]

Hey I don't have mine in front of me as I write this, so check what I'm saying, but I think this model has a cassette detection switch in the top right corner of the cavity where you put the cassette, so the motor will spin while you have a cassette in, that's normal behaviour. If the switch isn't there, it'll spin as soon as you turn on power. So you can't get round the sound, just reduce it. Lubricating the player thoroughly might make that noise a bit quieter, but it's not a nice job if you're new to this. You might want to just put up with the noise, put a cushion over the portastudio if you need to record something quiet in the same room.

[@aSpeaker2BlocksAway]

@@Tetrakan thanks man, i gonna Check that.

[@dansloss2566]

The link to the 3rd Island repair video is kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHm4lpljfMaJj9Esi=Fv4mI4ZVMTEIBFzN