Telefunken RC 200 cassette deck repairs

This 1981 Telefunken RC 200 cassette deck will not rewind or fast forward the cassette, it has a noisy motor and possibly a bad belt. Let's fix all of these problems, using lots of sandpaper!
First repair video from 2012: • DrCassette's Workshop ...
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[@profibere]

Majority of people would say this decl is not worth the tremendous effort time and knowledge necessary to restore it but fortunately there is someone who thinks othetwise. If not so there would never more exists tape decks. Congratulations for this superb job.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@fitzjameswood5486]

Another great video. Very clear and brilliant explanations.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@Mrsteve4761]

Always enjoy your videos. How fortunate to be able to remove the hub drive and get to the other without disassembling the entire mechanism!

[@JamesE707]

What a great video. Here, we can appreciate that faults are incrementally developing all the time in *parallel*. You've put a lot of work into this repair and video DrC, very enjoyable viewing indeed! I also like the cassette loader - basic and robust. I've never been a fan of motorised loading machines they developed in the 1990s.

[@DrCassette]

Yes, it's one fault after the other - I could have kept this video going probably for another hour, but eventually I decided the condition it's in now is good enough for me :)

[@dykodesigns]

Nice repair, sandpaper seems to do the trick. Quite like the “dental floss” solution on that bearing.

[@DrCassette]

I actually used to use some real dental floss that I had left over for things like this, but I ran out of that dental floss years ago...

[@solct]

It's good to see that serviceability was taken into account when designing the device! The mechanics contain little plastic, but these plastics are not prone to breaking/disintegrating either...

[@onesixfive]

Like some other commenters I too am a virgin to this type of loading mechanism. At first I was sure you had removed the door for the video! This is a beautiful unit - Id add this to my system in an instant. Too bad you are so far away, I’d love to pay you to refurbish my units and profile them on your channel. I work for a company that sells power transmission belts. Despite the difference in scale your understanding of tension and your immediate diagnosis of the tracking issue would translate well to our industry. Let me know if you need a job lol

[@abc-ni9uw]

That clunk after hitting play @ 18:35 is why you loved repairing this nice deck 😉

[@senilyDeluxe]

I found a Blaupunkt XC-240 in the dumpster that looks like it has the same mechanism (and also HighCom). It works, but only sometimes. It does look like the shaft of the take-up/supply reel is sticky and thanks to your video, next time I have it open, I will fix that once and for all. That deck also had the motor going bad after only a few hours. It was "only" the electronic inside the motor. Probably it was the IC, because I tested all the other components... luckily I had a spare motor regulation board (sans motor) lying around which I put in there, so this deck still uses the original motor.

[@DioDreamer]

You should change the orange capacitor in the old electronic board (6,8nf) and will work

[@holgerortmann5178]

Yes ! Telefunken RC 200 and Blaupunkt XC 240 are most most similar, because Both Tape Decks are made by Funai Japan ! You can identificate Devices are from Funai : The Order Number of Printed Circuit Board are 7 Digits, beginning with 161.... The same excellent Mechnism are in Universum CT 2307, 2317, 2318. 2393, 2394 , 2395, Uher UHER CG 343, 344 and other.. Funai produced for many ohter Brands too Another Funai Hifi devices.. Blaupunkt HC 60, XC 240 Nordmende Stereo Recorder 6000 UHER CG 310. 321, 343, 344 Siemens RC 532 Saba CR 833 , 836 Teac V 30 Universum CT 2307, 2316, 2317, 2318, 2361, 2345. 2393, 2394, 2395, 2396 etc Universum VTC 23814 ( Hifi 70 ) and many many more Lg The knirscher

[@RetroMechanic]

Nice fix =) I need to fix my ONKYO R1 too. Left axle are lose, and no brake. so after pressing STOP, its still spinning :D

[@electronicwaves]

The amount of work you put on this is astonishing. This required a lot of patience and creativity, especially the sandpaper part and the motor alignment part with washers got me. It would be really nice if you made a dedicated video showing step by step how to treat idler wheels and pinch rollers with sand paper. What worries me more is using the wrong number of sandpaper and also how to treat them without making external surface uneven / not having the same diameter everywhere anymore, because if I fail to do this in an even way that will result in wow and flutter or worse.

[@DrCassette]

Thank you! :) Sanding the surface of rubber idler wheels and pinch rollers is not that difficult. For sandpaper, use the finest you can find, the finer, the better (highest number). The fine sandpaper will not take off much material at a time, so the risk of creating a flat spot by taking off too much rubber is very low. Ideally the wheel or roller is rotating while sanding.

[@santioriginal]

Telefunken, Uher, Saba, Braun, Basf, Grundig, ITT, Lorenz, Graetz, Schaub, Blaupunkt, Siemens, Wega, Loewe, Metz, Dual. Probably i forgot some illustrious German brands. Edit: Nordmende, TechniSat, Behringer, Cybernet. Heritage! Nice machine! HighCom should've/would've/could've been the standard.

[@nickfrench7372]

I like the sandpaper trick method to clean and restore rubber idler tyres,,,I,'ll have to try that on a few old cassette deck players I have here in Australia,,,they do play,,,but don't fast forward or rewind good. I also like how u can take the tape out of the machine without pressing stop first,,,as with mine,u can't,,as there is covers on the cassette doors.

[@WailinHeino]

Ich habe eben ein topgepflegtes und anstandlos laufendes Telefunken RC 200 erworben für 50€. Hoffentlich bleiben mir diese Reparaturen noch lange erspart:). Der Klang ist wirklich anständig......endlich kann ich wieder mit HighCom hören, was ich früher für mein Akai Tonbandgerät über das Telefunken CN 750 schon mal hatte. Feiner Kanal !

[@kl6990]

Was ist denn der Unterschied High Com oder nicht? Habe selbe ein Telefunken RC100

[@WailinHeino]

@@kl6990Nun, HighCom gibt Dir einen um einiges besseren Rauschabstand. Meiner Meinung nach klingt die Musik mit HighCom besser als mit Dolby B und C....analoger, aber auch brillianter. Selbst bei einem Frequenzgang bis max. 15khz ( Telefunken RC 100 ) sollte das evident sein.

[@kl6990]

Vielen Dank erstmal für die nette Erklärung. In den 80er war ich froh überhaupt ein Gerät zu haben, welches Kassetten abspielt.Erst heute hinterfrage ich solche technischen Details. Ich kann aber beim Umschalten auf Com keinen grossen Unterschied feststellen bzw eigentlich gar keinen.Vielleicht liegt es aber auch an den Lautsprechern.

[@felixlutticken5694]

Ich habe das heute für 35€ erwischt, braucht nur neue Riemen. Zustand ist auch noch ziemlich gut

[@WailinHeino]

@@felixlutticken5694 Sehr schön! Herzlichen Glückwunsch. Derzeit habe ich auch die Auswahl an günstigen Ersatzdecks Telefunken RC 200 in Frankfurt / Offenbach( ab 35 -55 €), falls ich mich dazu entschließen sollte. Wenn ich nicht schon 6 tape decks hätte:).

[@pliedtka]

Ja, nice mechanism, all metal. I also use sand paper, for shiny capstan No.2000, provides better grip on tape and lowers W&F. BTW, did you notice newer decks have mate finish on capstan. Nice new motor, new one like this. Hum, dirty swine... that's from Das Boot, I would love to have the Nakamichi Hi-Com processor, although they made Dolby C to track well in their decks. Take care, keep yourself safe, good repair. The bridge is better than on many other machines, some are worse than this one.

[@rodantkapoor9721]

I really enjoy your videos, and am learning quite a bit, thank you! Subbed!

[@DrCassette]

Thank you :)

[@AudioMobil]

Dieses Modell habe ich auch noch 2x hier stehen, mittlerweile sind leider beide Decks defekt. Jetzt weiß ich schon mal, wie das Teil auseinander genommen werden muss. Mir gefällt die Tatsache, dass man von vorne an das Laufwerk rankommt, ohne es gleich komplett ausbauen zu müssen.

[@DrCassette]

Viel Erfolg bei der Reparatur! Dieses Video sollte da hoffentlich ein paar gute Hinweise geben.

[@Oldgamingfart]

A favourite trick from the VCR world was to simply turn the idler inside-out. Good as new! I guess it's not always possible, as the smaller tyres used in tape decks would be difficult to flip. At least not without ruining them totally..

[@DrCassette]

I have previously turned idler tyres inside out, but in this case the tyres are too small for that to really work.

[@RuneTheFirst]

Noisy motors: Motors made over the last decade (or more) tend to be assembled without added lubricant. Whatever is already in the bearing when it is shipped to the motor maker is "good enough" it seems. I routinely oil them with the best synthetic oil I can get before installing them. Never had an issue since. On that note, many a noisy motor can be returned to its quiet state just by oiling the shaft where it enters the bearing and motor body. I have had that work even with 60-year-old motors (like one I have on the bench now. I have items I lubricated that way in their 4th decade of service since without any issues. Not putting anyone down but I have found that lubricants used in German, British, and most Japanese equipment age very poorly compared to American lubes. The US has been crazy for better lubricants going back to the 50s with the result being that they seldom fail in such a way as to turn to varnish/glue. The attitude has since spread across the globe but old gear can usually be expected to suffer from the problem.

[@DrCassette]

The replacement motor that was in this cassette deck I put in 8 years ago. It was lubricated back then to fix the same noise that the motor had re-developed in this video. So adding oil was not a permanent fix which leads me to believe there is something else wrong with the motor.

[@noelj62]

Like you attention to details.

[@svenfranke8383]

My dad owned the same Tapedeck and a Tuner and a Receiver from the same series in the late 1980s. I remeber it very good....

[@PeterMilanovski]

Interesting loading mechanism! I have never experienced a cassette with HiCom... How good is it?

[@DrCassette]

HighCom is one of the best consumer noise reduction systems. It's based on the professional Telcom C4 that Telefunken developed for studios and broadcast applications. HighCom is far better than Dolby B and C, better than dbx thanks to better circuitry and certainly about as good as Dolby S. Nakamichi later on developed the HighCom II system that was based on HighCom. Unfortunately HighCom was more expensive to license and produce than Dolby, so the Japanese industry was not interested. So HighCom faded away together with the German consumer electronics industry in the mid 80s.

[@PeterMilanovski]

@@DrCassette That's fascinating, DBX never really worked for me although I have seen Techmoan do a demonstration of it with an encoded record and I was blown away! All that I ever got was a very unstable level where loud parts were too loud and soft parts couldn't be heard! Either I was using the wrong cassettes to record with or I just didn't know what I was doing LoL.. So basically it's always been Dolby C for me. I have noticed that not all Dolby Noise reduction chips are the same, some Dolby C chips perform better than others, I remember finding a list on line of all the different Dolby chips used by manufacturers of cassette decks. I think that one of these days I'm going to get my hands on some HighCom chips to experiment with, there's also a noise reduction chip that was made by National Semiconductor which didn't have a licensing fee. So if you come across a cassette deck which just has NR but no Dolby, it would be a national... If you daisy chain then, they work better, two Dolby B in series gets you one Dolby C... Same thing for the National...

[@holgerortmann5178]

Telefunken RC 200 made by Funai Japan under Telefunken Specification. Identication of Funai Sets The Order Number of Printed Circuit Board are 7 Digits, beginning with 161....

[@DrCassette]

Very interesting, thanks for the info!

[@kl6990]

Hello, which Motor exactly did you said here in the Video? The Motor in my RC 100 is very loud.

[@auris8789]

Thanks Very helpfully

[@abc-ni9uw]

At 9:15 what is that Mitsubishi looking logo ? My pioneer has four 15000mf power caps with that same logo. They have lasted since Feb 1980 so only curious ( for time being ) I'm guessing they are Mitsubishi or Panasonic

[@DrCassette]

That is the old Matsushita logo. Matsushita is the parent company of National, Panasonic, Technics and they controlled JVC until a few years ago. Recently they renamed themselves to their best known brand Panasonic, and took over Sanyo.

[@saarike]

Great repair! Thanks a lot for vid.

[@jma6412]

Hi mate... what tool do you use to get the oil in there and which oil do you recommend using? Thank you for another great video.

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

It looks amazing.

[@RuneTheFirst]

The corrosion on the flywheel is caused by the belt wearing away the protective coating on the casting. This was cadmium in years gone by and other things (like lacquer) were used later. The pot metal alloy under it will oxidize quickly with exposure to oxygen and moisture. Regular use of the deck will wear away the oxide as fast as it starts to form. Re-coating with lacquer will protect it for a while but it has to be a thin and uniform coating. More durable formulas are available now. Your solution is the simplest though. More work is reserved for better units. On the topic of the tires, it would be better to replace them with properly-sized ones. These are available from several suppliers, including the original PRB/Russell Industries people. Measure the groove the tire sits in carefully (calipers) and the outer diameter. Multiply by pi if the supplier lists them by circumference. It will probably outlast the rest of the deck after that.

[@DrCassette]

As I explained in the video, all tyres are now the original sizes again.

[@DaXande135]

Please more such videos!

[@DrCassette]

There will be more of these videos, hopefully soon.

[@Good_parts]

Greetings. When rewinding is turned on, the rewinding motor does not receive a signal from the control board. I noticed that the motor driver IC6 (BA 6208) gets very hot. Rewinding died gradually. Can this chip burn out?

[@DrCassette]

It certainly is possible, I have had this happen on various of these early full logic models...

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

That belt may have been a case for the old boiling trick. Good job though. The test recording honestly told me more about the deficiencies of the speakers used than anything else. A direct tap or separate (external) recording of this would be helpful if you can arrange it.

[@DrCassette]

How long does the boiling method last? It can't be a permanent solution? I still have the original belt, so I could give that a try, but not if it only lasts for a month. I do have the equipment to get a direct recording, but I don't need all of KZbin's self declared experts on everything to then use that direct recording to point out everything that's not perfect with the cassette deck.

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

@@DrCassette My very fuzzy excuse for a memory says that not only do the boiled belts hold up pretty well, the procedure can even be repeated if needed. I think @12voltvids has resorted to this on occasion (even using a microwave) when there was no matching size in the stash. For obvious reasons, 1. the belt needs to be the right material for this to work (synthetic rubber) 2. you want to be using a *spare* pot, cup, glass or whatever that no longer gets used for food items.

[@DrCassette]

Thanks for the info!

[@numinousbookofreview]

Great video, thanks.

[@hoffmannolsen]

Do all cassette decks have bearings behind the supply/take-up reels? I have a pioneer ct-s820s which is a bit slow.

[@DrCassette]

There are lots of very different mechanical designs. Maybe you can find some info in the service manual for your cassette deck.

[@RuneTheFirst]

It is odd to find a deck from that era without Dolby noise reduction. Super low-end or general consumer version?

[@DrCassette]

This cassette deck is equipped with the excellent German HighCom noise reduction system. Better than Dolby B and C and dbx, but unfortunately not successful on the market. For playback of prerecorded cassettes with Dolby B NR, there is a Dolby expander.

[@coctailer]

I would love to find one of these in the USA

[@DrCassette]

I am not sure if Telefunken was active on the US market at that time...

[@RanFuRe]

I actually have the vey same deck at home. Mine works fine, other that it will sometimes suddenly stop playback. If you press play again, it will resume just fine, however. Any ideas what I should look at? Good video in any case. I will certainly have to refer to it at some point in the future, when my deck gives out ^^

[@DrCassette]

Make sure the counter belts are okay. If the counter stops, it will trigger the auto stop after a few seconds.

[@RanFuRe]

@@DrCassette Cool! I will check that. Thank you! :)

[@jdekong3945]

Hi Dr Cassette, do you have a place you go for replacement stereo heads? JJ

[@DrCassette]

If I scrap a cassette deck I always keep the heads so I can re-use them in other cassette decks. I have no idea where you could get new heads today.

[@jdekong3945]

@@DrCassette Thanks Dr C, if I manage to find a supplier of new heads I will let you know

[@armike669]

It’s nice to see the deck in hd after that last video. Did you get the motor from the rc100 that you said was waiting for new belts in the last Telefunken rc200 video 8 years ago?

[@DrCassette]

Yes, the motor came out of that RC 100.

[@RiderRc100]

Thank you for clip. sir.

[@colloidalsilverwater15ppm88]

exactly the same problems with motor misaligning with belt, poor grease-in the motor for ff and rew, sticky grease in mechanism which takes heads up and down(blocked), I had on model CC20, telefunken. Even sensor for cassette presence was blocked, I solve it with little drop of benzin.

[@andilowe9526]

Where did you get the idler tires? The problem is that the motor is working and it also moves the idler wheel. But the idler wheel isn't moving to right or left side.

[@DrCassette]

I restored the original idler tyres by sanding their surfaces with a very fine sand paper. If the pivot mechanism that the idler wheels are mounted to doesn't move, check for dried up grease.

[@HalilSARICAN]

What is the silent mechanism and how it works? Is there any video about silent mechanism repair? Thanks in advance..

[@DrCassette]

Not sure what exactly you mean by silent mechanism. Is it a fancy one with 3 motors? In that case it's a variant of the full logic mechanism. Try to find the service manual for your cassette deck, it will contain further info.

[@samuelfellows6923]

😁 - like how he pulled the cassette out without stopping it, how does that work?

[@DrCassette]

There are electrical contacts behind the shiny silver pieces on either side of the cassette compartment. They serve the same function as the stop button.

[@TomReinerDE]

Hallo, gibt es einen Grund, dass Du Fensterreiniger für die Gummiteile benutzt und nicht Isopropanol?

[@DrCassette]

Der im Glasreiniger enthaltene Alkohol ist geringer konzentriert als im puren Isopropyl-Alkohol, die Gummiteile sollten davon also weniger stark angegriffen werden. Meistens bringt der Glasreiniger auch schon sehr gute Ergebnisse. Wenn die Reinigungswirkung nicht ausreicht, nehme ich Isopropyl.

[@TomReinerDE]

@@DrCassette Cool. Danke Dir.

[@VC-yx8bb]

Здравствуйте!!! Какой смазочный материал вы использовали в ремонте ?

[@DrCassette]

For my repairs I use fine oil (sewing machine oil) and white lithium grease.

[@dannyjaar]

telefunken germanys brand build like a tank

[@DrCassette]

Telefunken is a German brand, this cassette deck however was already made in Japan, by Sanyo as far as I know. The Siemens RC 333, despite looking totally different, uses exactly the same mechanism and has a very similar power supply section - the metal shield I put onto the transformer in this video in fact came out of a Siemens RC 333 I took apart many years ago (before I knew how to repair cassette decks). Telefunken's top of the line model of 1981, the RC 300, was still made in Germany. Inside it looks totally different from the RC 200.

[@DaXande135]

Interessant, interessant! Wie jemand anderes hier auch: Wie gut ist HighCom eigentlich? Würde mich ebenfalls interessieren...

[@DrCassette]

HighCom ist eines der besten Consumer-Rauschunterdrückungssysteme. Basiert auf dem professionellen Rauschunterdrückungssystem Telcom C4, das Telefunken für Studios und Rundfunkanstalten entwickelt hatte. HighCom ist weit besser als Dolby B und Dolby C, besser als dbx dank besserer Kompander-Schaltungen, sicher ebenbürtig mit Dolby S. Nakamichi hat später basierend auf HighCom ihr System HighCom II entwickelt.

[@revolutronic]

@@DrCassette schön das du hicom nach all den jahrzehnten noch so preist! technisch stimmt das ja auch alles, nur leider hatte man in der praxis wenig davon, wenn man mehrere tapedecks/autoradios/boombox bedienen wollte.

[@DrCassette]

@@revolutronic Ach, nun sei doch nicht so negativ! Cassettendecks mit HighCom gab es in den frühen 80ern zumindest auf dem deutschen Markt reichlich, ein transportables System mit HighCom hatte Telefunken meines Wissens auch im Programm. Und Autoradios waren in den frühen 80ern noch nicht so weit, da gab es auch mit Dolby kaum Modelle.

[@halitmarmaris]

Thank you 🎵

[@rafiqkarim3274]

Hello dr cassette, hope you are doing well. Im curious, how do you connect the scope to your cassette deck ?

[@DrCassette]

To connect the cassette deck to the scope all you need is a little RCA to BNC adapter.

[@HDXFH]

Heatshrink tubing may be a long term fix for the motor tyre

[@DrCassette]

The heatshrink tubing I have both in unshrunken and shrunken condition has a very smooth surface, not at all like rubber. So I don't think it would work very well, the idler tyres would not get a very good grip on that. But I have thought about this solution before.

[@abc-ni9uw]

Beautiful German quality

[@DrCassette]

Designed in Germany, but made in Japan, by Sanyo as far as I can tell.

[@vintagehifi9183]

good luck with your hand

[@JosevaldoSilva-p8c]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@pradippathak2492]

Where is Dr Cassette?

[@DrCassette]

I am here.

[@solarr2]

👍🤓😎👍🤘

[@sync232]

My door doesnt move!

[@DrCassette]

You mean the decorative metal flap that covers the mechanism? It is not supposed to open in any way, but it should move out of the way when you insert a cassette. If it does not, check that the heads are not stuck in the up position for some reason.

[@sync232]

@@DrCassette Thanks for the reply, i fixed it. It seems i pressed play without having a cassette in, the two black arms popped up and didnt close back down, they kept the metal backside open. I opened the deck and manually moved the black arms. Now it works fine. Thanks for the replay but i should have deleted my message. :)

[@isoguy.]

Advert at start of vid, 4 minutes in advertisement. Hmm! Love your channel but ads this frequent will make me unsubscribe.

[@DrCassette]

Thanks for your feedback. I told KZbin to place ads at the start of the video and during the video, but it seems like they can't be trusted with where they place the ad during the video. I will have to place them manually to make sure the ads are at least 10 minutes apart. You really don't get much advertising on my channel, no sponsored videos, no videos of me advertising a product (turning the entire video into an advertisement). But I do want this channel to at least cover the costs it generates for me...

[@samuelfellows6923]

Well.. I have subscribed to KZbin premium and didn’t see them 😁 - yes, I don’t like them, I assume part of the 15£ fee goes to your channel 🇬🇧

[@boris2342]

take me to the dump...

[@keithgilliard9191]

Dump, dump, dump