A Sony SVO-2100 S-VHS VCR works perfectly except REW and FF do not work (CUE and REVIEW do work). The only thing I notice that may be related is that upon insertion of the cassette the tape is fully-loaded rather than half-loaded. It then stays fully loaded after STOP. I would think that the tape should only half-load upon insertion and after STOP. Is that correct, and if so, what is the problem?
By "fully loaded" do you mean the tape is tightly wrapped around the drum as opposed to loosely wrapped around the drum? Many VCRs keep the tape loosely threaded around the drum while power is on. This is to facilitate speedy REW/FFW-to-PLAY (and vice-versa) mode transitions. On some machines, you can hit STOP twice to unthread, while others won't unthread until you turn power off.
At any rate, a dirty/defective mode switch can be one cause of the symptom(s) you're seeing. First check to make sure there are no broken/stripped/chewed teeth on the gears -- you may not be able to see all of them unless you manually work the mechanism. If they look ok, make sure the mode switch is properly set. Sometimes you need the service manual for this, other times it's pretty obvious where the alignment holes should be. If that looks ok, you might open the mode switch and clean it.
Ray...thanks for your helpful reply. First, by "fully-loaded" I do mean the tape stays tightly wrapped around the drum. I agree that the mode switch is a likely candidate, but it is not easy to get access to it in this machine (at least that is how it looks to me). I will make further attempts to get to it, so if anyone knows an easy way, let me know.
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