Zen and the art of RL02 maintainance

There is no 'alignment' between the heads and any other part of the drive (e.g . the spindle), but there is an adjustment between the 2 heads. I think it's possible (although quite difficult...) to get the 2 heads so far out of alignement with each other than they lock to different cylinders when you switch sides (the head will lock to the nearest odd or even cylinder demending on whether it should be on an odd or even one). There is alos an alignment procedure in the service manual, but that's to reduce access time when switching sides (if the heads are out of relative alignemt, the head carriage has to move further when you switch sides, so it takes longer for the drive to become ready after such a switch). It's quite easy to do, you don't need a special alignment pack, just any RL02 pack, a reasonable 'scope, and a few clip leads. -tony