Hi, I'm a total beginner, but I have a pretty simple VCR issue that doesn't app= ear to be covered in Sam Goldwasser's VCR FAQ
When I'm stopping or ejecting a tape, my back tension regulator takes too l= ong to move out of the way, and the left shuttle assembly gets blocked on i= t - and pins it in place - on its way back to the front of the VCR. Basica= lly, the two parts end up jamming each other, so neither can move, and it s= crews up the timing of the two shuttles as well as the gears underneath sli= p teeth.
What exactly is the mechanism that is supposed to make the back tension arm= retract away from the full erase head and toward the tape door? Is it sup= posed to sit passively while the left shuttle assembly pushes it back towar= d the front, or is the VCR supposed to apply power to explicitly move it ou= t of the way? If the VCR is meant to explicitly apply power, what controls= the timing of this?
I half-expected this issue to be a common cause of jams and thoroughly cove= red by VCR repair resources, since the back tension arm literally crosses t= he path of the left shuttle assembly, but I haven't found anything about it= yet. I can't imagine I'm the only person in the world who has ever had th= is happen to them.
My VCR has other issues that bring about this behavior initially, but this = is the most pressing problem due to the potentially damaging nature of a ja= m like this and the difficulty of removing tape afterwards. (Usually the V= CR will work fine...but using my VHS-C adapter revealed a problem with the = source spindle. After an initial error occurs, the machine stops. After c= ycling power again to eject, it jams the shuttle and back tension regulator= ...and once that happens, it breaks down on playback and jams on every ejec= t attempt until it's "fixed." I "fixed" it once before by magic and got it= working again with regular tapes, but trying the VHS-C adapter again cause= d the jam once more, and I'm trying to understand what's going on this time= .)
Thank you for your time!