1993 Olds Cutlass Ciera Delco AM/FM/Cassette

The cassette deck of my Delco model 16129923 AM/FM/Cassette deck plays way too fast. Interestingly, last fall it played too slow, this year it plays too fast. Also, the auto-reverse mechanism was not working properly (tape did not change direction when I pushed the button to change from side A to side B), but that problem seems to have gone away now that I just replaced the drive belt. Yes, I obtained and installed an exact match for the belt. The new one seems just a little tighter than the old one, so it's not like the old one was completely shot. I had hoped replacing the belt would also solve my tape speed problem, but no such luck, although the tape isn't playing quite as fast as before.

Someone on another site said the problem might be that the slide plate that moves the tape head into the cassette might need lubricated. I guess that will be the thing I attempt next, if I can figure out how to get at the slide plate to lubricate it with a few drops of machine oil. Or, I was told, the problem might be with the electronic motor speed control circuit (if this deck even has one of those), in which case I would not be able to do the repair myself.

I'm quite proud of myself for getting the darned thing out of the dash, and then removing the cassette mechanism from the housing. I'm no electronics expert by any means, just a do-it-yourselfer who doesn't think I should have to pay $85/hour to repair a 13-year-old cassette deck!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Farmer Bill
Reply to
Farmer Bill
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Reply to
JR North

Check the capstan for buildup of crud or a piece of broken tape wrapped around it, and that the pinch roller is engaging the capstan, while pressing the tape between them.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Thanks. The cleaner tape was the first thing I tried. It didn't help.

This tape deck has had very little use over the years, which made me think the problem was an age-related problem like an aged drive belt, rather than an overuse-related problem.

JR North Wrote:

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Farmer Bill
Reply to
Farmer Bill

Thanks Mike, I'll give that a try, assuming I can access the pinch rollers and capstans. Somewhere else I remember reading a comment by someone who said they had "roughed up" the pinch rollers. Is it possible the rollers in my deck have hardened with age, and are slipping on the capstans? Do the capstans drive the pinch rollers, or vice versa?!

Michael A. Terrell Wrote:

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Farmer Bill
Reply to
Farmer Bill

The pinch roller pinches the tape against the capstan. If the rubber is hard, some electronics jobbers have a solution to re-soften them.

Reply to
Homer J Simpson

The capstan is the driven part, an it goes through a hole in the cassette housing. The pinch roller is spring loaded on a swinging arm. You want to clean the roller. Some of the older cleaners used "Oil of Wintergreen" and alcohol. All i can find theses days is "Synthetic Oil of Wintergreen", and I haven't had a chance to test it to see if it works like the real thing. There are some rubber drive cleaners still on the market, but the better ones appear to be long gone. My favorite was "Friends Vita-Drive", but I ran out 15 years ago, and have not found any since then. I bought some rubber roller cleaner from a big print shop, but like the "Synthetic Oil of Wintergreen", I haven't tested it. I recently picked up a few cassette decks from a thrift store to test it on, but there is no AC in my shop, so I have to wait for cooler weather.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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