I have an Aiwa mini system that's coming up 5 years old the end of this year. Had no trouble with it until recently.
Sometimes when I press play on either deck (mainly deck 2) the tape won't move, then I'll hear 5 clicks and it jams. None of the tape functions will work and I have to force open the door. This damages the tape sometimes. When I switch the unit off and on it clicks 5 times again. I noticed the mechanism is in the playing position and I have to hold it down then switch on and off to put it back in place.
Then when it does work, there is a problem with both decks. Deck 1 plays tapes like the head is dirty, but I have cleaned it and used a head cleaner so it can't be that. When you play the tape in reverse mode, the sound is as it should be.
With Deck 2 it will play the tape double the speed, then completely fine in reverse mode. In general rewinding/forwarding on both decks sometimes confuses it...making it stall before carrying on or jamming as mentioned above.
I'm completely baffled so any help/ideas would be appreciated
With deck 1 it sounds like the head needs to be demagnetized, this is very easy to do and Radio Shack carries demagnetizer cassettes. Or the head can be misaligned which is probably the case as these auto reverse deck go out of alignment with frequent use. Deck 2 sounds like a broken leaf switch or contact. Any competant repair shop can handle this. Just make sure the repair cost does not exceed the replacement cost.
hi all new member...i have a couple of probs with my tape decks and would be grateful for any help 1...i have a KENWOOD X83 TWIN TAPE ..deck B record... is fine but... deck A play... after using for around half hour screeches loudly (although this does not come out in recordings 2 i also have a SONY WE305 TWIN DECK again the record deck B is ok ..but deck A ..play.. the sound suddenly stopped and the peak level meter shows nothing but does on deck B if used...deck A...will still rewind/forward and if play is pressed with tape in will still go...just no sound
You need to get more data to analyse the problem. Is the capstan turning? Is the pressure wheel turning? Is it making contact with the tape. Is it spilling onto the takeup chamber? Lots of times you can put scotch tape over the sensor and play the unit without any tape and see what's going on. the clicks represent the trip mechenism that says no tape is feeding and shuts the unit down.