Andy

I'm not familiar with particular deck but do have a fair bit
of Beta experience in general.

If this deck has a reel idler (Sony call it a pendulum), which
swings between the two reels, then I would suspect that it is
not pulling smoothly, causing the tape to speed and slow. Sony
idlers do not usually have friction surfaces to wear out, they
use a magnetic clutch which is fairly reliable. But what does
happen is the idler wears its way through the plastic mounting
it sits on. Sometimes the solution is as simple as adding a
washer under the idler to set it to the right height again.

For the other explanation suggested here, that the upper drum is
worn, there is an old trick which can extract more life from
these. The same applies to lower drums on VHS. You can gently
apply some longitudinal scratches into the stationary part of
the drum (ie along the length as the tape sees it) using
glasspaper. I know this sounds crude, but it does the same job
as the lines which are manufactured onto the head, it helps to
keep an air film between the drum and tape. As the drum wears
and is "polished" by the tape, these lines can fade away causing
the tape to stick to the head drum. The above is usually only
done as a last resort when the alternatives is to scrap the
machine, but can provide a complete cure to tape sticking problems.

Hope this helps,

Colin

Andy Cuffe wrote:

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:28:14 -0600, Jim Adney
wrote:


I have a question about my Sony SL-2000 Betamax VCR; that's the little
1982 portable that is the mate to the TT-2000. It's not clear to me
where the best place to ask this might be, so I'm going to start by
just asking here. Just in case, does anyone know if there is a Beta
VCR newsgroup?

My SL-2000 works just fine except in Rewind. While rewinding, the tape
gets loose and flops around until the RH reel slows down and then the
tape goes briefly tight speeding up the reel. This repeats over and
over again. It didn't do this when the deck was new, and I'm sure this
isn't good for the tapes.




This is the right place for your question.

I have an SL-2500 which is the non-portable version of your VCR. It
also has the same problem you're describing. I think the problem is
caused by a worn upper head drum (the part that doesn't spin). The
extra friction seems to cause an oscillation in the servo system
that's supposed to keep the tape tension constant in rewind. I've
never bothered repairing it because I found another 2500 that was in
excellent condition to replace it with. I think the upper drum is
still available for not too much money (about $40). If you can see
wear marks where the tape passes over the drum, it wouldn't hurt to
replace it. These are excellent VCRs with no belts, tires, tension
bands, or other friction devices to wear out.
Andy Cuffe