8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

[dwight]

Look at the Shugart 800 manual. It shows a similar adjustment for the pad. The head may still touch the disk though when the pad is lifted on the 800. Maybe not a good idea but how it was done. Do make sure the pad is clean and flat.
Dwight

________________________________
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of Chris Zach via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 7:14 PM
To: CCTalk mailing list <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: 8 inch floppy head pad adjustment

Working on cleaning up my RX02 drives: I've taken the 8 inch floppy
units out of the case/chassis and have been cleaning dust and such off
the whole assemblies.

One thing I noticed: There is a pad opposite the head that comes down
when a solenoid is energized to provide pressure against the read head.
Makes sense, it also has a pad that presses against the floppy disc
itself, probably to keep it from jittering. However I noticed on both
heads that the bracket is adjusted all the way down. This means that
even when the solenoid is not energized the head pad is pressing against
the disk and pushing the disk against the head.

Is this normal? I would think this would result in the floppy always
being pressed against the head and quickly wearing out the disk. The
whole point is to let the disk float against the head, only letting the
pad push things into contact when doing a read.

Do I have this right, and is adjusting that that assembly proper when
the pad puck is not touching the disk when up, but is touching it when down?

C