[sdiy] OT: Repairing tape decks?

[Karl Ekdahl]

Hi list, sorry for the OT but i'm trying to get myself a tape deck (casette) and so far i've already thrown away two broken ones and about to do the same with this third one, but i figured maybe someone knows how to fix these things. Being mostly mechanical i'm at a loss..

This particular deck exhibits pretty much the same behavior on both sides (it's a dual), one side plays and sometimes rewinds - otherwise anything i do (play, rewind, forward) makes the decks give an "end of tape"-behavior, in other words it sounds like it tries to move the tape but fails and decides it's at the end of the tape and shuts down the operation. As far as i can see, all the rubber bands seems to be OK. The deck is a Technics RS-T230, i've seen there are service manuals out there but they cost ~5 times what i payed for the actual deck...

Thanks

Karl