Sony TC-651 Rebuild
I picked up this 1970's vintage reel-to-reel tape deck from my friend who trades in antique radios. It was very dirty inside and out and in real need of restoration. I hesitated at first to take it on, but since it wasn't missing any parts I decided to see what could be done with it. My main goal was mostly just to save it from the scrap heap.
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Front and rear views of the tape deck. Although it's a bit of a heavy beast, it wasn't too difficult to work on since most of the PC boards plug in.
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The heads and transport were filthy with tape oxide and crud. I purchased new drive belts, and rubber restorer for cleaning the pinch roller. I spent quite a few hours just cleaning every inch of the deck.
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A couple of PCB's after cleaning but before replacing the electrolytics. Every electrolytic on every board was replaced.
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The only real electronic issue in the machine was the bad snubbers for the relays. As seen in the left photo most are swollen from leaky capacitors.
The right photo shows the replacements made from individual capacitors and resistors. |
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One PCB that doesn't plug in is the headphone amp which is squirreled away in a bottom corner and a bit hard to get at. The pics show before and after replacing the electrolytic capacitors.
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All the PCBs after being recapped and cleaned up. Plus the entire interior of the deck has been cleaned.
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I ordered a PCB board extender online for troubleshooting and alignment. I masked off the traces on it with painters tape to prevent any accidents when poking around inside with a probe.
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The deck is fully functional now. I completed restoring this right before we moved in 2017 so I haven't had any time to really play around with it and record a few albums. But one of these days...
Page published 1/23/2020
Last updated 1/23/2020
Last updated 1/23/2020
