Marantz PMD 101 counter noise and rewind trouble

[skaboosh]

Hi

I am a pro musician and bought a second marantz pmd 101 mono "pro level" portable tape recorder for recording ideas on the go, paid £50 off the bay.

I have a couple of problems with it that I am wondering I can fix.

1/. Tape counter noise in forward play and fast forward is very noisy to the degree that using the internal mic is ruined b the mechanical noise coming from the counter. It sounds like the counter to me, but I could be wrong, I guess. This noise is there even without a cassette in the machine.

2/. rewind stays on for a few seconds only, regardless of having a cassette in it then springs to OFF. Also, occasionally in PLAY mode the machine stops as well, as if it has reached the end of the cassette when it hasn't, this was a fairly new cassette, it may be a sticky cassette but i doubt it.

I have built guitar pedals, and amps etc so i can be a little bit handy with things but don't know a bean about tape machines. The unit has lots of screws to open it and I don't even know how to open it.

I am using the supplied marantz mains adapter.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

many thanks