[DMcMahon]

By holding the flywheel stationary and trying to firmly rotate the speed change sleeve ACW & CCW was able to remove the sleeve, it was not threaded just a very tight fit onto the capstan shaft, maybe due to > 50 years being stuck on. Now after freeing it, it slides on and off quite easily.

Been trying to work out why it will not power up. Looks like the power is switched by a rotary switch which looks to be mechanically actuated by 2 wings/vanes at the end of the switch assembly, one vane looks to be actuated by the blue Forward push button and the other vanes actuated by the white Rewind push button.

However pressing the respective push button only results in the button mechanism very slightly making contact with the respective operating vane, i.e. not enough to move the switch electrical position.

Watching the FT-305 & FT-303 YouTube clips show that when the Forward and Rewind buttons are switched down, they switch power on and the button stays latched down until the red Stop button is pressed.

As far as I can see the Forward & Rewind buttons are just spring loaded, i.e. no latching mechanism, so the latching must somehow be done by the rotary switch mechanism.

Unless I have got the wrong end of the stick, I can see no way it will switch on or latch the appropriate button down with the present mechanical set-up, I think there must be a mechanical misalignment but it looks like it will take quite some working out what is incorrect.

David