Hi everyone,
I am having some problems with my JVC VCR. I have read in previous posts where those who were kind enough to help asked us to be specific about the problems (as well as confessions of what we did to our machines before coming here to beg for help). I would very much like some help and here is my confession (please forgive me for any unknown repair sins...):
I bought a JVC HRD-720U VCR about 6 months ago at Goodwill. The price tag was $5.00 with the classical saying "AS IS No Return". Heck, $5.00 won't even buy a movie ticket and the JVC VCR was heavy, solid, stereo, and had peak level meters (when was the last time you saw peak level meters on a VCR?). So I bought it and took it home to see if I could resurrect it.
The tuner picture was snowy so I checked the RF section and replaced a couple of dried up electrolytics. Picture looked real good after that. This VCR had the classic JVC "linkage pin falling out" problem with the left guide post. I glued the pin back in place. I went to load a tape and the machine played fine until I went to eject the tape when the tape stopped "half way out of the loading basket (loading mechanism). I loosened the four screws that held the basket to the tape transport and fully ejected the tape after lifting the basket off of the transport. I manually turned the loading motor to make sure the transport (The roller pins, etc.) was completely backed off into the "tape-unloaded" position. I did the same for the basket and then re-installed basket onto the transport. Walla! The machine worked perfectly-----for about 3 months...
Now the VCR started to have trouble loading a tape (It would not let the tape fully down onto the transport and would eject it). So I removed the basked and reset everything again (reset the basket and the transport. Annnd Walla! It doesn't work (aww poop...).
What happens now is that the VCR's basket (loading mechanism) will load a tape all of the way down onto the transport, but as the transport tries to engage you can hear it bind (lock) up (there's a clunk when it locks up and the loading motor bogs down as it spins agains the taught belt). I can see everything on the transport start to move (like maybe
1/32 of an inch) then stop. After the the motor strains against the locked up transport for about 4 seconds, the machine shuts off. If I leave the tape in and turn the machine back on it immediately tries to load the tape (which it won't because the transport locks up) and then shuts-off after about 4 seconds). So I removed the tape and turned the machine on (without a tape in the basket), but the VCR "thinks" there is a tape there and still tries to load a tape then shuts off after four seconds.I tried to locate a mode switch, but I cannot seem to find one on this transport. there is an optical position sensor mounted on the side of the basket, but I am not used to seeing a mode switch there (is that the mode switch on this machine?).
I'd really like to get this thing going again as it is a really well made VCR. I was planning to use it with MY JVC HRD-910U that I bought brand new back in 1990s (For the bargain price of $369.00). My 910U is on its second set of belts and still going strong. I had hoped the 720U would be as solid. Any help would be much appreciated. I do not have a service manual, or schematics.
That's as much detail as I can think of to type.
Thanks in advance if you can help me out, John