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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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26th Oct 2020, 7:24 pm | #1 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Hi
Have a little knowledge of these, but is a head change full of problems and after new head fitted does the alignment of the tape path need to be adjusted? Thanks Mark |
26th Oct 2020, 9:36 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
In theory yes, but in practice I found, more often than not, it was so close it was not worth disturbing the inclined guides at all, and at most, all that needed adjusting was the cone that moves the A/C head laterally to centralise the tracking control when replaying a reference tape.
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26th Oct 2020, 10:08 pm | #3 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Thank you very much. Did the alignment adjustment need a special tool to adjust the tracking as I believe I did these adjustments many times at Radio Rentals
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27th Oct 2020, 10:32 am | #4 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
In theory the guides need a special slotted tool to adjust but more often than not a small screwdriver could be used with care. Often they needed little if any adjustment. Head switching and preset tracking just needed a standard trimming tool. I doubt Radio Rentals would have insisted on a full alignment!
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27th Oct 2020, 3:41 pm | #5 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Thank you! My memory is bad now but one of my jobs was to put a reference tape in and checked/adjusted the tracking by a screw behind the sound head. Was this not tracking as I thought?
Thank you |
27th Oct 2020, 6:10 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
We didn't do many 3Vxx machines at Granada, my experience began with the Hitachi 5000 series, but on the basis one top-loading VHS is much the same as any other...
... there are a number of adjustments that impact tracking, and in different ways. The screw immediately behind the A/C head is to set its perpendicularity, quite difficult to do by eye alone, we had a simple jig in the workshop. Best left alone unless you changed the A/C head, not as critical as what comes next The screw at the side of the A/C head, the one without the coil spring, is for setting the audio azimuth, it's very critical but also very easy to adjust routinely as long as you have a test tape with a tone of about 6kHz recorded on the linear sound track It is essential this tape is accurate with zero azimuth tilt. Back in the day when we were unboxing brand new fresh from the factory machines, this wasn't hard to make trustworthy recordings our own. On the chassis to the left of the little assembly upon which the A/C head is mounted is a brass cone with a split slot for adjustment. This moves the entire assembly laterally against a spring, and has the same effect as the user's "tracking" control. If you find after changing the drum the user's tracking control is near one end of its travel to get a noise-free picture when playing most commercial pre-recorded tapes, you can being it into the center using this cone, but don't go mad otherwise you'll get lip sync issues with pre recs. This is what I like to think of as "static tracking" moving the track so it encounters the heads as they swing by. There is the whole other issue of the track angle ("dynamic tracking" if you will) set by the inclined guide-rollers, the ones that move and wrap the tape round the drum. Ideally you need to look at the FM carrier coming from the head amps on a scope and adjust for best flatness on an alignment tape. As I said you will probably not need to touch that and it's just as well.
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27th Oct 2020, 6:27 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Never needed to adjust tape path through head change in all the many I have done on VHS machines.
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27th Oct 2020, 10:29 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
It's certainly a testament on how accurately head drums are machined.
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27th Oct 2020, 10:41 pm | #9 |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Peacehaven, East Sussex, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
and how well the head heights were set up.
when we fitted new heads to production units one head was set to 3 microns above the other using a microscope - there is a hole in the deck plate where it was attached |
27th Oct 2020, 10:44 pm | #10 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Westgate On Sea, Kent, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
On the 3 V series just make sure that the loading belt is good and that the tape guides are going into the V blocks properly apart from that I doubt you will have too do any adjustments of the tape guides they are reliable machines apart from bad belts a the cassette lamp failing make sure the pinch roller is good and the felt band on the back tension band has not fallen off
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28th Oct 2020, 12:07 am | #11 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Thank you for all your help.
Really appreciated |
28th Oct 2020, 12:27 am | #12 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
I have such an interest in these early machines. Some people love restoring cars well I feel the same about these VCRs! I am nearly 60 but love all the parts moving and producing a picture and you can actually take them apart for servicing. I realise this is very old technology and have so much to learn. I guess training courses are no more so have no idea where to start looking for knowledge. I know a lot of work needs oscilloscope but maybe these old ones are still available now but have no idea what to buy let alone use one! Lol. Appreciate all your help.
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28th Oct 2020, 12:31 am | #13 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Quote:
https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/ID...-Page-0020.pdf https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/ID...-Page-0021.pdf
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28th Oct 2020, 12:33 am | #14 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Replacing the drum on a 2 head machine required little, if any realignment. 4 and 6 head machines weren't too much trouble either until some companies started supplying remanufactured units. The quality fell off a cliff and with some suppliers getting good LP and HiFi was troublesome.
John. |
28th Oct 2020, 10:08 am | #15 | |
Hexode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Peacehaven, East Sussex, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Quote:
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28th Oct 2020, 11:09 am | #16 |
Dekatron
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Location: W.Butterwick, near Doncaster UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
I do remember fitting a rather expensive NatPan S VHS head and even that was straight forward with no adjustments needed.
Also remember that head cost me £130 way back then and I paid for it as an exchange I owed someone.
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28th Oct 2020, 11:10 am | #17 |
Dekatron
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
That looks like rocket science to a normal busy repair shop! As Hamish Boxer says, as long as the heads were decent you bunged them in, checked the switching point, the guides and the tracking and off you went. If alignment was needed, it was usually due to a speck of dirt under the head disc or the phantom twiddler. Of course hi-fi or S-VHS discs were a very different story.
There would be no need to go near the ACE head unless that was the head that was changed. |
28th Oct 2020, 3:54 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
I was a bit OCD with audio head azimuth Glyn.
I would always make a check by applying slight finger pressure to each side of the head while listening to the 6kHz tone from my alignment tape, if the level fell off in both cases, all well and good, but if there was an increase, then I knew which way it needed to go. With a machine already "in service" there was a bit of a dilemma, particularly if the customer had recorded a large collection of programmes in LP mode which will of course play perfectly on that machine.
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28th Oct 2020, 4:26 pm | #19 |
Octode
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Owston Ferry, North Lincolnshire, UK.
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Likewise never had to adjust the tape path when replacing VHS upper drum head units. Unless of course some unknown person had been in messing about! Now Betamax, well that's a totally different ball game with that head disc unit and that eccentricity gauge.
Dave |
28th Oct 2020, 4:51 pm | #20 |
Tetrode
Join Date: Oct 2020
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 51
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Re: Ferguson 3v30 heads renewal
Thank you all for advice 👍
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