Akai Cr-80D-SS not changing programs. help!

[sculptorD5]

I have about a handful of tapes, both q8 and stereo, that won't change programs on my deck. The foil is good and they work on other players.
I've tried taking the tape out of one of these carts and putting it in a different case, but the problem is still there.

Does my Akai just HATE Bette Middler and Neil Diamond?

Strangely, even though i have to switch the programs by hand on these certain tapes, the machine will still auto shutoff at the end of the last program.

 

[Doug G.]

Does it sound like it's trying to change? You know, does it click or anything or just silence?

If it clicks but stays on the same track, the mechanism is stuck and probably needs to be cleaned and relubed.

These work by the foil actually acting to close the circuit formed by two contacts in the tape path. This operates a solenoid that pulls on some kind of mechanism that moves a cam that moves the head up and down.

Doug

 

[mtgc]

Does your Akai change channels on all tapes except a few, or does it not change channels on all tapes? If it is all tapes, then you might have a dirty contact in the contacts that touch the foil to change channels, or perhaps a gummed up tape channel cam.
If, however, it only happens on a few tapes, perhaps the tapes themselves have a problem, such as bad tension pads which would allow the foil to back away from the tape change contacts.
Just a few guesses.

MTGC (Michael)

 

[Q-Eight]

I'm wondering if maybe a circuit has failed somewhere. If the programs change manually, and the auto-stop function still works (which utilizes the same track change pickup).

Taking into account the auto-stop function works, I would look elsewhere for the problem.

 

[sculptorD5]

To answer your questions; it only happens with 5 of the same tapes, out of my collection of over 100. The player works perfectly every time with the rest of my collection.
I have tried different types of pressure pads; even putting the problem tape spools in different shells to see if that was the issue. Didn't solve my problem.

I tried an experiment last nite that solved my problem on the affected tapes. It seems the oxide formulation of the tapes in question was the culprit. I placed a 1" strip of clear tape over the exposed oxide on the incoming side of the foil splice. The programs changed properly with this little tweak.

On one of the other affected tapes i tried the same idea, but without using any tape this time. With a very fine emery board, I sanded off 1" of the oxide next to foil splice. (incoming side). once again, this did the trick and now the Akai deck will change tracks.

I did the same procedure to the remaining 3 tapes, now they all work properly.

strange.

 

[ndiamone]

If the tapes in question were recorded onto Dynatape it's not surprising. Dynatape lubricated tape was used forever by radio stations in their broadcast carts as well as by 8-track duplicators (esp in the Midwest). For some very strange reason, on some players that you noticed the oxide cancels or grounds out the charge needed to pull the solenoid and change tracks.

This also happens a lot with back-lubricated tape that has a high carbon content, because we used to have the same problem in the Streets of Old Chicago museum exhibit. We'd use radio station carts and have, say a random choice of 4 different conversations at a turn of the century telephone everytime you dropped a nickel, or 4 different conversations on the street between neighbors. We just spliced red Allied Radio leader inbetween the tape ends and laid the changer foil right in the middle on that, with no splice and it worked fine.

 

[sculptorD5]

yep, definitely a tape issue. After searching for ages, i found an article about the track changing problems on some of the Akai decks.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.collecting.8-track-tapes/browse_thread/thread/5a5e8aee4d6b90f5/a67af5d396cc46b5?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=akai#a67af5d396cc46b5