So you think you want to play with tape: The Pioneer CT-F1000 3 Head Cassette Deck

music soothes the savage beast
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Is this rubber hardened?
 

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No, it's new - I replaced it when the clutch returned from its repair. I have one tire that I have yet to replace because the replacement sent in the kit was the wrong size and I need to match it to something I can get, that particular tire is actually in pretty good shape and still grippy and pliant. All belts are new.
 
Kevin,

I just read through most of this thread, as I wanted to reference something for my CT-F900 and 950's. Nothing in common.

And you mentioned onkyo ta2060 and 2080, both of which I own. Despite them having softer Sendust heads versus the ctf-1000's ferrite ones, these two onkyo's are much much easier to work on if you look for good recording decks. Just give one or both of them a try if the occasion comes by at a good time for you.

Terence
 
CT-F1000 rebuilds

I have rebuilt two of these now, although I had the caps replaced in the second one by a service on e-bay. The first deck taught me replacing somewhere around 183 electrolytic caps is not especially fun.


The first deck was a disaster - it had all sorts of bad hacks in it including missing mechanical parts, bad belts and tires, small-gauge wire used instead of c-clamps. It's a wonder it worked at all until it was correctly rebuilt. The second was in mint condition but I still replaced some old parts - one of the micro-switches, belts, tires, and one plastic spindle that engages FF and RW. I use the first deck for parts now.


These tape decks - when in good operating condition - are just superb. Good to listen to, good to look at, and if you can find the parts, completely repairable by someone with just moderate experience. My mint deck is working flawlessly - I swear it hadn't been run more than 100 hours before I got it as a "non-working tape deck".



Common problem areas - the micro-switch that detects a tape present; there are 5 fuses (one hidden on the power board), so many electrolytic caps that after 40 years there are always some failing so just replace them all, crud on the pots (easy to clean out), watch for crud on the rollers (after 40 years there is usually some), and sometimes a misconfigured spring (look for the glue spot on the plastic pivot arm- that will be the original place the spring was attached). If you replace caps in the audio path, be sure to re-tune the deck after a brief break-in period.


Someone mentioned delicate PCB pads - they are not kidding. It's very easy to lift a pad when trying to remove a stubborn component.



You will likely note a strange "hack" on the Playback Equalizer - two wires soldered onto the board going to some pins - that is a factory hack. Most of the pins are wire wrapped so if you want to keep your deck original looking then be ready to perform some wire wrapping - many of the wires are brittle from age and are likely to break when parts are moved about.



One great feature of this deck is the 400 Hz Dolby tone generator - you can use it to debug the audio path and record without hooking up a signal generator.
 
Check the tape counter

Forgot to mention something that can affect FF/RW and even PLAY.


I once had a problem with FF/RW not working well. I finally tracked it down to the Tape Counter which is connected to the FF/RW plastic spindle with a belt. I cleaned up the counter (alcohol, light oil) and the problem disappeared. If the Tape Counter produces enough friction, some of that is transferred to the FF/RW spindle through the belt causing it to slip more. It was not obvious where the problem was so I recommend you clean the Tape Counter as a precaution.
 
I was reading your thread on this CT-F1000 machine. I purchased two of them as they sold for Parts. I got the Kit (WJoe and Vintage Electronics) with had the tires and belts for the unit. I cleaned the Plastic with a mixture of 99% alcohol and mix 25% of acetone to remove film and oil. Put it together with patience. lots of contact cleaner (for the Variable and Switch controls) and alignment it as per the service Manual and works well. The unit barely fail a Wow and Flutter test. it turns out that the Belt I purchased had a anomaly, which matched to wow error measurement on a scope. I am waiting for a new belt and of course taking it apart. I repaired the clutch piece when replacing the tire, I noticed it was tough to spin. As I am an old school dog of an Electronics Bench Tech / Engineer (Back in the day we didn't have lots of manufactured parts, so we made due with redesigns as needed. when I took it apart, the inner plastic piece has a split running thru it. I made 2 stainless ring 1/8 inch long and it fixed both clutch problems. Ironically, both decks had the same problem. The motor also was dry/sludge, cleaned it re-oiled it. except for the wow it has, I am extremely happy with it. I wish it had a high BIAS freq adjustment to check EQ, but you can have everything. it will replace my Kenwood KX-1060 deck when I am done.
 

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The clutch assembly is notorious for failing and there is a guy who sleeves for a nominal fee on audiokarma. I did a huge amount of work on mine but ultimately gave it to a friend a couple of years ago, replaced by a much more modern machine - Japanese market Sony KA-7ES. Congratulations on sorting yours out, they're quite challenging to work on as you've already discovered. They're really eye catching in a way most newer decks are not.
 
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Hi. Sorry, but the head of the CT-F1250 was prone to this fault, fault that consists in only playing low or very low frequencies.
I don't know the reason, but the only way to repair this fault is to replace the head.
Pioneer CT-F1250 , CT-F950 The Head might be cracked (very common problem sometimes) Check this out
also the pots need to replaces w 10turn Part3,4? IMO The Pioneer CT-F were the best sounded tape decks out their.
Redoing my Pioneer CT-F900 had to take apart the motor apart in parts #2 Hard to do but I have alot of torque now. (very little before) Wow its a big job to do it right but thanks to youtube and I also have another one for references.
 
only did a repair, not a restoration project so left caps alone etc

Tape transport repair, used idler kit and belts from this vendor

WJOE Radio

Also replaced both pinch rollers with aftermarket types but had to modify them to fit...came up good :) all day job though
Thanks (been looking for a good supplier)
Prices look good As of today and they have the Pinch Rollers (2 different ones needed) and Belt kits w idler roller for the Pioneer CT-F900 and CT-F
 
I was reading your thread on this CT-F1000 machine. I purchased two of them as they sold for Parts. I got the Kit (WJoe and Vintage Electronics) with had the tires and belts for the unit. I cleaned the Plastic with a mixture of 99% alcohol and mix 25% of acetone to remove film and oil. Put it together with patience. lots of contact cleaner (for the Variable and Switch controls) and alignment it as per the service Manual and works well. The unit barely fail a Wow and Flutter test. it turns out that the Belt I purchased had a anomaly, which matched to wow error measurement on a scope. I am waiting for a new belt and of course taking it apart. I repaired the clutch piece when replacing the tire, I noticed it was tough to spin. As I am an old school dog of an Electronics Bench Tech / Engineer (Back in the day we didn't have lots of manufactured parts, so we made due with redesigns as needed. when I took it apart, the inner plastic piece has a split running thru it. I made 2 stainless ring 1/8 inch long and it fixed both clutch problems. Ironically, both decks had the same problem. The motor also was dry/sludge, cleaned it re-oiled it. except for the wow it has, I am extremely happy with it. I wish it had a high BIAS freq adjustment to check EQ, but you can have everything. it will replace my Kenwood KX-1060 deck when I am done.
I am trying to restore the CT-F1000 and ran into the same issue JAElectricEye discovered with the Clutch. I observe the cracked plastic too. I wonder if anyone else had success with this solution. Can anyone offer more detail or a photo, so I might have a better understanding of what I need to do?
 
I just went through one of my CT-F1000s and I'm having a similar rewind issue that was very much unexpected.

It has all new rubber and a new (donated from an FG-driven motor Technics) low-hours motor. It has GREAT torque in both directions and will rewind a tape to about 80% and the rewind TIME will be ahead of spec by a comfortable margin. And then...it slows down (instead of speeding up like one usually sees) and slowly comes to a stop. This isn't exactly the problem the OP describes, but it's very peculiar from my perspective. I suspect it's mechanical and NOT electronic as I can take the tape out and the rewind hub still has a LOT of torque. It does it on multiple tapes. I checked it when I first changed all the belts and WJOE-manufactured rubber replacement pieces and it worked (I thought it did anyway) perfectly. I had to travel for a couple of weeks and when I returned it started to exhibit this weird behavior with an approximately 90-minute tape (The Elton John Australia tape) and now does it with a number of tapes. Any helpful insights are appreciated. I've worked on a bunch of these CT-F's and I've never encountered this problem before including on other CT-F1000's. It's a low-hours sample (I've had it for about twelve years and it worked fine until the playback function stopped working owing to idler/motor pulley interactions, as described before now fixed) and I did NOT note any cracks in anything ANYWHERE. It's a pickle. TIA...
 
Those Pioneer 1000s are a PITA to service. Most people don't want to spend the money on them and yet they fetch good money on auction sites, so there is value in these machines if they're treated correctly.

I have a few Japanese 3 head decks around for transfers and I chose them due to their long term reliability. The Yamaha deck I use has been running perfectly for the past 15 yrs and the sendust heads show no signs of wear, even with a few hundred hrs of use. The only thing it ever needs is a touch up on the speed adjustment and a drop of oil on the capstan bearings. It has original caps in it, which I won't mess with unless the sound changes. I spot checked a few of the PS caps and they still measure full spec. I have an extra head block asy for this deck but likely will ever need to replace it. I wish my A80 was this maintenance free...
 
I was reading your thread on this CT-F1000 machine. I purchased two of them as they sold for Parts. I got the Kit (WJoe and Vintage Electronics) with had the tires and belts for the unit. I cleaned the Plastic with a mixture of 99% alcohol and mix 25% of acetone to remove film and oil. Put it together with patience. lots of contact cleaner (for the Variable and Switch controls) and alignment it as per the service Manual and works well. The unit barely fail a Wow and Flutter test. it turns out that the Belt I purchased had a anomaly, which matched to wow error measurement on a scope. I am waiting for a new belt and of course taking it apart. I repaired the clutch piece when replacing the tire, I noticed it was tough to spin. As I am an old school dog of an Electronics Bench Tech / Engineer (Back in the day we didn't have lots of manufactured parts, so we made due with redesigns as needed. when I took it apart, the inner plastic piece has a split running thru it. I made 2 stainless ring 1/8 inch long and it fixed both clutch problems. Ironically, both decks had the same problem. The motor also was dry/sludge, cleaned it re-oiled it. except for the wow it has, I am extremely happy with it. I wish it had a high BIAS freq adjustment to check EQ, but you can have everything. it will replace my Kenwood KX-1060 deck when I am done.
Common issue on these decks. The broken nylon parts are a pain to source and is the reason I dont touch the 70s pioneer decks anymore. Once that stuff breaks, your just chasing your tail trying to find good replacements. Its rather sad.