On 3/22/2025 6:23 AM, Tony Duell wrote:
On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 5:49 AM Jim Brain via cctalk
<[email protected]> wrote:
I was wondering if anyone here has experience with the FD55-B with head
load solenoid.
There are many different series of Teac FD55s with differences between
them. I've worked on several (meaning I've stripped and rebuilt them
at a lower level than the service manuals suggest).
As noted, it's an FD-55B (double head, 48TPI), exact model number is
FD-55B-01-U, part number is 19307110-01
Whether it has a head load solenoid or not makes little difference.
The head carriage is unchanged.
I wasn't sure.
The side of the carriage nearest the stepper motor/tension band
positioner has a pair of metal bearing bushes that run on that rail.
The other side, nearest the load solenoid, has a pair of plastic tabs,
one above and one below the rail. My guess is that one of the tabs has
broken off in your drive.
That was my thought as well.
I don't have any spares for these drives. As I said earlier you need
to know the complete model number to get the right drive to take parts
from.
Bummer, I know it needed to be a -B, but I was hoping I could rob a part
off a BV or something later, as they are easier to find.
* Can one replace the head on these (it looks like you can, but I admit
I have never changed parts in a drive mech.
Anything is possible apart from skiing through a revolving door :-)
I was pretty sure, given how many screws there are, that the answer was
yes. I probably should have asked a followup question, questioning
whether it's worth trying to do the fix (without parts, the question is
academic). It's not like the drive is especially rare, though they are
commanding premium prices now (Dave Dunfield graciously sold me a few
over a decade ago at reasonable prices, and they are still running
strong), and I suspect they will only get pricier as time marches on.
More seriously, I have taken head carriages out and put them back on
Teac FD55s. It's a long job, a lot of other parts have to come off
first (PCB, top front chassis, spindle motor, head load solenoid,
etc). Then you uncouple the tension band (exactly how depends on which
drive series it is), take out the rails and lift out the head carriage
Note that you replace the whole thing, trying to align the top head to
the bottom head if you want to replace only one of them is supposed to
be impossible in the field. It's not but it is not something to do
'for fun'
Yeah, I figured it was a head unit or nothing swap.
Anyway, once you've got the new head in, you test it on a scratch
disk, and then you have to do the radial head alignment etc, with a
special CE disk.
Well, before I make too many plans, is anyone in need of other parts
from a drive like this? I assume the head and electronics go first, but
just checking.
Otherwise, if it seems practical to fix the unit, I'll stow in the
"waiting for parts to fix" box.
-tony
--
Jim Brain
[email protected]
www.jbrain.com
