Welcome to
eBarina's RT-909
Note: Click on any of the thumbnails below for the LARGE version of the picture.
A new window will open.
If you then click on the big picture, it will toggle back and forth between the "Scaled to Fit" and the very large "Full Size with Scrollbars" sizes.
In the "Full Size with Scrollbars" view you can examine the picture very closely.
Here are some picture of my Pioneer RT-909.
It still doesn't play a tape, because it needs a new belt for the capstan drive.
But it wasn't even this happy last weekend when I plugged it in for the first time after it sat on the shelf for many years....:
It promptly blew both the 4A and 2A fuses, the counter display was out, and no motor activity at all. The Level meter display was on, and the audio in and out were working.
And while I'm waiting for the new belt to arrive; and because I'm going to have to take the covers back off again to put the new belt in; and because I know of one guy out there already with the same 4A 2A problem, I'm going to show him exactly how to fix it.
So, ppeterso2 get your digital camera out, because I'm askin' you to E-Mail Them To Me, pix of you fixin' yours! And hey, I'll even post them here, and the same request applies to all RT-909 owners who have found some help here on this page. A picture is worth 1000 words. (or is it 1024 words in this digital age).
So keep clickin' that refresh button on your browser, to refresh this page today...
Because this page is "Under Construction"!
Revision #5
May 18, 2010
So, here we are, all dressed up and no place to go. The counter display does not light up. None of the motors turn. But the Level Meter lights up, and can show the signals on the input jacks just fine:
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First, Unplug the RT-909, and don't plug it back in again with the bottom cover off.
To do that we remove the 4 screws circled in yellow holding the "feet" on, and the 6 screws circled in red, and the bottom cover comes off.
Remember: Click on a thumbnail for the LARGE version of the picture.A new window will open. If you then click on the big picture, it will toggle back and forth between the "Scaled to Fit" and the very large "Full Size with Scrollbars" sizes. In the "Full Size with Scrollbars" view you can examine the picture very closely.
Looking at the fuse board, we find both the 4A and the 2A fuses are blown.
If this sound like your RT-909, then read on.
Take off the side-top-side cover by removing the 4 screws on each side.
Next take off the back cover by removing the 4 screws circled in red:
Now we have access to the CONTROL Board (RWG-105 on the schematics).
Here's what my handy multimeter reads on the "Ohms" scale when it is open circuit,
trying to measure the resistance of air.
Here's what my handy multimeter reads on the "Ohms" scale when it is measuring a piece of speaker wire, my dead old capacitor, or its leads are shorted together directly. "00.5"
Next measure across the cap the control board as shown here, and check if it's a dead short.
If it's a dead short, you will need to desolder the two pads holding the cap on the board using some solder wick. Make sure that the two leads are completely free of the board.
Push them in a bit to make sure,
After the capacitor leads are desoldered and loose, THEN do the next steps:
Remove the screw on the side which attaches the left heat sink to the frame:
Keep it separated, it's longer than the others.
Remove the 3 screws on the bottom edge of the control board:
Keep them separated, they're different than the others.
Detach heat sinks 2 and 3 from the front panel:
Using a long screwdriver, loosen the lower 2 screws through the access holes in the control board.
(Now you know why there are two big round holes in this board.)
Only Loosen by two turns the lower 2 screws.
Remove the upper 2 screws completely.
Keep them separated, they're different than the others.
Now CAREFULLY tilt the whole control board back about 45 degrees:
You're going to have to carefully grab the cap with those big pliers shown in the picture above and break it off of the board because it's attached with hot melt glue.
Here's a picture of the new cap installed on mine:
I put in a new belt.
Nearly stripped one and only one screw head. Dam those things are hard to break torque on. Had to use an impact wrench, adapters and hammer. I'm sure I didn't bend anything, but I sure had to bonk harder than I ever expected. So yeah, heed the warning about screwdriver quality. My one screw head is a little damaged, so I'm looking to replace it.
May 18, 2010. "Jeff" wrote me today.... and he had the following to add:
Click on the thumbnail photo below and see the big picture of the screw extractor I used after stripping the most inaccessible philips screw holding the motor mount plate for my Pioneer RT-909 recorders.
The ProGrabit was purchased from Home Depot but Amazon has a nice photo of the 3-bit package.
Go to http://amazon.com and lookup the part
Type in "Alden 8430P Grabit" in the search box.
I got the one for 18+ dollars, (with 3 piece bits)
To use it, I has to build an extension for my small impact driver so it could extend far enough to reach the screwhead inside the recorder.
One end of the extractor is used to clean out the deformed philips head, the other end then "grabs" the screw while backing it out.
I put some paper with blue tape, sticky side up, under the screw while burnishing the screw head, and backing out the screw, to keep the junk from getting into the recorder circuit boards.
One "click" of the impact while slowly running it counterclockwise grabbed the screw and backed it out. I've since replaced that screw with a stainless metric thread I think #8 screw, 1/4"
To get to the screw, and to replace the belt, I ended up snipping all the cable ties so I could push the wires out of the way, and removing the bracket on the vertically mounted circuit board so I could unplug it, then the motor mount easy to back out, slip on the drive belt, put the motor mount back then carefully center the belt on the capstan motor and capstan drives by rotating things until the belt was centered, and located on the "high spot" on the motor spindle.
I also had to replace the capstan rollers, and to remove, clean, and re-grease the assembly holding the roller so it would move up and down freely.
Jeff
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