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Old 08-31-2018, 09:33 PM
stragulus stragulus is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 18
RCA VDT-350 mechanical issues

I have a RCA VDT-350 that has the dreaded cracked loading gear. I've been able to jury-rig it with a lot of effort but now the loading arms work as expected. However, I'm having a hard time with the operational keys and the picture stability.

With the plastic lid on the tape holder, I can get the deck to play and rotate the reels. However, the bottom half of the picture is white noise. If I leave the lid off and press on the tape in certain locations, I can get a full and good picture, usually then the take-up reel doesn't rotate though so it will be for a brief moment. But at least the heads seem alright.

Additionally, the keys are sometimes locked. It's not an issue with levers directly underneath the keys like this guy describes on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLNaLWqLy48

However there is a part of the mechanism I can move with a screwdriver that will lock some keys but not others. I'm not even sure if that part is supposed to move. At this point it just becomes a whole bunch of guesswork. Does anyone have a copy of the service manual for any of the VCR's that share this mechanical chassis? I think it's the same as the original VCT200.
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