Msg: 6066 *Conference*
10-15-95 11:22:13
From: PAUL WHITING
To : RICHARD HANSON
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #6064 (IS MY PDD2 DYING?!)
Thanks Rick, very much. I know how busy you are, and I thought after posting this I shoulda put "all" in my header like I do on CompuServe so's not to single out the busy sysop for answers! But you took the time for a helpful answer, and it is appreciated. I've dissambled the drive twice, so this answer will be in two parts, once before your answer and once afterward: part 1: I disassembled the unit, and cleaned the head. Wasn't sure what it was at first, but it appears to be that small, white ceramic-like block _below_ the disk where the felt arm comes down on top of it. When I powered up the stepper motor would run for a long time, several seconds, whereas it used to just come on for a moment as if it was resetting itself. I noticed the stepper assembly was positioned such that it was about half-extended. So I took courage and hand-turned the axle so the stepper was back at the end of its extension (toward rear of chassis), and now it powers up like it used to. Then I cleaned the head again, carefully, using 95% isopropyl alchohol. I was quite gentle with the unit but I may have knocked the low-battery LED loose. Maybe it was a cold solder joint. I carefully touched a soldering iron tip to it and re-anchored it, without applying excessive heat. Seems to me, however, it used to flicker on for just a moment when you hit the power switch to let you know it was working. Now, oddly, it would only do that if I _touched_ the upper pigtail of the LED when I powered up! I did get it working for a while after all this, but then it began acting up again. Will next try your rubber band cleaning suggestion. part 2: Disassembled unit again, cleaning the belt and pulleys. Did not oil as you suggested, because not sure I had right oil, and thought the movement seemed smooth anyway. Without putting the case on, I tried again... noticed a strange thing: the stepper assembly would only go about halfway across the diskette window. Maybe that's why I was only getting partial files and corrupted files in transfers. Also tried formatting a disk, and noticed the stepper assembly creeping across the window, formatting each track til it got about halfway. Then it kept trying to format that track, and eventually gave up and gave me an error msg. Tried cleaning the worm drive... seems there is some lubricant there, too, more of a grease I guess. In cleaning I removed this lubricant, so maybe should re-lubricate that, too. So, pardon the long msg, but it's looking to me more like the stepper assembly. If you'll tell me what sort of oil to use on the motor and pulley bearings, I'll go back and do that... but that wouldn't seem to have any effect on the stepper assembly travel, would it? Or maybe it would... dunno! Thanks again, Rick, for all your help. Regards, ... Paul