So. Today I had a four piece Sony on the bench. I looked at it a couple of
weeks ago, and determined that the problem with the CD tray only loading one
way was the motor driver IC, and that the reason the cassette decks didn't
work was because the belts were totally perished. Parts duly arrived from
Sony, so fitted the IC, and that put the CD to rights. On to the tape decks.
It's a pair of that rotten Sony design that needs you to remove the cassette
doors with function buttons in them, connected by ribbon cable, then the
whole front of the unit, then the board that goes right across the back of
both decks, then the two boards one on the back of each deck, then the white
plastic motor plate has to be removed from each deck, before finally, you
reach the belts. I do all this, fit the new belts, then put it all back
together again. Left hand deck runs fine. Right hand deck is having none of
it.

After much head scratching and bridging of switches to make it run without a
tape in, I discover that the rotating head for forward and reverse play,
isn't (rotating that is) and both pinch rollers are going in at once.
Careful examination of the deck in situ reveals that there is a lever at
the bottom, which is displaced. I click it back on, run the deck, and it
pops the lever off its clips again ... So, it all had to come apart again
and this time the capstans had to come out as well to get at the piece of
mech. I get everything back in place and work the mech by hand, and all ok,
so I put it all back together again, and now it plays in forward, plays in
reverse, but when you stop and try to play forwards again, it cuts out
because the trailing spool isn't going round. Why ? because there is now a
small loop of tape in the cassette that's just long enough to not be taken
up before the autostop cuts in. And why is there a loop ? Because as the
mech comes to a stop, it just for the tiniest moment 'flicks' the take up
spool in the 'wrong' direction. And why does it do that ? **** knows is the
simple answer ...

I have had it all apart so many times now that I have had the end of one of
the ribbon cables break. As the day has worn on, I have come that close to
throwing it up the wall and taking a hammer to the bits that come back down.
And then phoning the customer, laughing maniacally, and telling them exactly
what I've done to their pride and joy. And when I say "that" close, I really
mean THAT close. I have cursed at it, and even screamed at it, but it has
taken no notice of me at all. If any of you remember the Fawlty Towers
episode where the car took a beating with a branch from a tree because it
wouldn't start, today, the Sony was that car, and I was Basil ...

The older I get, the more I'm getting to hate my life at the bench :-(

Arfa