22 Mar
2025
22 Mar
'25
11:23 a.m.
On Sat, Mar 22, 2025 at 5:49 AM Jim Brain via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I was wondering if anyone here has experience with the FD55-B with head
load solenoid.
There are many different series of Teac FD55s with differences between
them. I've worked on several (meaning I've stripped and rebuilt them
at a lower level than the service manuals suggest).
Whether it has a head load solenoid or not makes little difference.
The head carriage is unchanged.
I have a few working ones, but this one is not, and when I look at it,
it differs from the others in that the head "wiggles" up and done on the
side nearest the solenoid.
The side of the carriage nearest the stepper motor/tension band
positioner has a pair of metal bearing bushes that run on that rail.
The other side, nearest the load solenoid, has a pair of plastic tabs,
one above and one below the rail. My guess is that one of the tabs has
broken off in your drive.
* Anyone seen something like this?
* Is this a broken rail mount on the head, or something else?
I think so.
* If its broken and probably can't be fixed, anyone have a parts FD55-B?
I don't have any spares for these drives. As I said earlier you need
to know the complete model number to get the right drive to take parts
from. It does have to be a -B (double head, 48tpi). The -A is
single-head, the -E (very rare!) and -F are the single and double head
96tpi versions, so the head is designed for a narrower track.
* Can one replace the head on these (it looks like you can, but I admit
I have never changed parts in a drive mech.
Anything is possible apart from skiing through a revolving door :-)
More seriously, I have taken head carriages out and put them back on
Teac FD55s. It's a long job, a lot of other parts have to come off
first (PCB, top front chassis, spindle motor, head load solenoid,
etc). Then you uncouple the tension band (exactly how depends on which
drive series it is), take out the rails and lift out the head carriage
Note that you replace the whole thing, trying to align the top head to
the bottom head if you want to replace only one of them is supposed to
be impossible in the field. It's not but it is not something to do
'for fun'
Anyway, once you've got the new head in, you test it on a scratch
disk, and then you have to do the radial head alignment etc, with a
special CE disk.
-tony