Boombox Repair

My trusty Panasonic boombox was my first audio-playing device ever. I've had it since I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, so it's nearly 40 years old. (ouch!) It's worked flawlessly, and up until Bluetooth speakers came onto the scene, this was my go-to radio when doing projects around the house. But recently when I tried to play cassette tapes it wouldn't work - the tape would barely move, and so there was no audio. It sounded like a demon talking in slow motion. So I opened it up to see what was going on.

As is the case with most old cassette players, the rubber belts that rotate the spindle (which moves the tape, which rubs against a magnet, which picks up the sound and amplifies Milli Vanilli...) were old, brittle, and strangely melted from old age.

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This should have been producing phat beats, but it was not.

Boombox Belt Fix

  • Removed the cassette mechanism to get at the belts.
  • Tested with light rubber bands first, which resulted in audio. But, the audio was all wrong because the rubberband tension is all wrong, which doesn't allow the tape to spin at the correct speed.
  • Ordered new belts from Amazon, installed, and viola.

The innards, exposed. The cassette deck mechanism is the culprit.

Removing this was pretty straightforward.

The belts that drive the cassette deck were toast, so I tested using some light rubber bands.

Now I can play my old Milli Vanilli tapes again!

The rest of the components got a cleaning.