Cassette Deck repair

[ExtremePie]

Hi All,

my dad has a fairly old Sony 3 head cassette deck, a TC-K611S and it isn't playing as well as it might.

The deck is making a slight humming noise, originally I thought it was mains hum but it isn't it's more of a mechanical clicking. When played, the tapes sometimes play well enough but can slow down a lot as though either the tape was stretched or the motor was struggling to draw the tape through.

I'm pretty sure that neither of these should be happening. Is there anyone out there that can either recommend someone to fix it, or tell me what might be wrong?

Cheers

 

[deebster]

The https://www.tapeheads.net/ forum is where I picked up a serviced deck a few years ago from the member A.N.T., who I think still does that kind of work

 

[waxkinglyrical]

I’m not sure Alex Nitkin is carrying out repairs any longer although he would be able to give advice alongside the Tapeheads membership.

 

[krenzler]

He can be contacted here:

http://www.ant-audio.co.uk/index.php?cat=post&qry=contact

 

[Zombie]

df_genius of this forum might be able to help you

 

[Clive D]

As might Mike Pickwell, a professional Sony expert/enthusiast.

 

[ExtremePie]

Thanks for the suggestions. Further investigations lead me to believe that the deck is merely suffering from a severe lack of cleaning over its lifetime.

Me: When did you last clean this?
Dad: Ummm, not quite sure...
Me (thinks): Actually, have you ever cleaned it?
Dad: Ummm. No.

So with a bit of a fair wind and some IPA for the deck and some more (different) IPA for me, the problems might magically goa away for a while!