VCR won't fully rewind tapes

[Steven L.]

My RCA model VR704HF VCR started exhibiting the following symptom:

It won't rewind a tape all the way to the beginning. It stops when
there's still roughly a half hour of tape to go. Pressing Rewind causes
it to rewind a little bit more but it still stops before it gets all the
way back to the beginning.

I'm also starting to hear a high-pitched tone in all tape transport
modes (playback, rewind, etc.) that I didn't used to hear, but I don't
know if that's related.

What's the most likely cause? And are there any suppliers left who
stock parts for a machine this old (1990s vintage)?

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

My RCA model VR704HF VCR started exhibiting the following symptom:

It won't rewind a tape all the way to the beginning. It stops when
there's still roughly a half hour of tape to go. Pressing Rewind
causes it to rewind a little bit more but it still stops before it
gets all the way back to the beginning.

I'm also starting to hear a high-pitched tone in all tape transport
modes (playback, rewind, etc.) that I didn't used to hear, but I don't
know if that's related.

What's the most likely cause? And are there any suppliers left who
stock parts for a machine this old (1990s vintage)?

A worn tired rubber belt (if it has any).

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
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[Arfa Daily]

A worn tired rubber belt (if it has any).

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/

Or a worn tired idler wheel (usually located on a swinging arm between the
supply and take-up spools). Either should probably still be available as
'pattern' parts. Try looking for a 'service kit' for that model.

The other possibility is a worn lower drum assembly, if the tape remains
wrapped during wind / rewind operations with that model. With this
arrangement, there is considerable frictional wear produced on the aluminium
alloy lower head drum, which over the years causes the friction between the
tape and the drum to increase. This manifests itself as high drag in the
rewind mode, when the tape is having to move backwards against the direction
of rotation of the upper head drum, and often results in the tape coming to
a complete stop, which is then sensed by the reel rotation sensors, causing
the rewind operation to be aborted early. This condition is often
accompanied by a squeal as you describe. This is an impractical problem to
fix, as the lower head drum is probably no longer available, and even if it
was, would almost certainly be prohibitively expensive compared to the value
of the machine.

Arfa