Apple IIe 5.25 Disk Drive, A9M0107 Noise

[madscatty]

Hi. I am semi-retired and trying to get my old Apple IIe running again. It has been ten years since I used the machine. The Apple IIe boots fine to basic and I can run programs and activate ports (PR#6, IN#11, etc.). The disk drive, which worked fine in the past, spins up but makes a new noise beyond the beloved rat-a-tat-tat of the Apple disk drives. The device keeps spinning but I don't get the Prodos screen etc. and the spinning will continue until I reset the Apple IIe. I have taken the drive apart and cleaned the inside here and there with isopropyl alcohol, including the drive head optics. The unit was clean, but now it is cleaner. The belts seemed tight and there were no obvious faults with the components. Upon reassembly, there was no change. Then I removed and cleaned the contacts on the disk controller card. There are no obvious faults on the card. I read the Apple Technical Procedures documents (linked through 68kmla.org) but the troubleshooting flow-chart requires known working hardware. I have attached a movie so one can hear the sound. Perhaps the sound is merely due to the disk continuing to spin, yet it sounds labored to me. I don't want to buy a compact flash drive adapter as I wish to work on the Apple IIe like we used to work on cars in the 1970s & 1980s .

Any help or thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers,
Madscatty

 

[volvo242gt]

It does sound a bit off. Almost like there's a bearing going bad. Or, the motor is spinning too slowly.

 

[madscatty]

It does sound a bit off. Almost like there's a bearing going bad. Or, the motor is spinning too slowly.

Do you think that the drive spinning rate being too slow would cause the drive to spin continuously?

 

[bibilit]

I will rather say the drive is spinning too fast.

You can calibrate the drive to the required 300 rpm or better 299 rpm speed, using any Iphone or Android phone with the right application.

I am using strobe tachometer, and the bottom white and black target to do so.

If the right speed is not achieved, the drive will spin continiously, as it’s not able to boot the disc.

 

[bibilit]

Too slow will not work either

 

[madscatty]

Too slow will not work either

Hi. Thank you for your advice. The unit spins at 96 RPM and does not change appreciably via the variable resistor pot. Is the next step to add a single drop of oil to the pulley and/or take the motor unit apart and see if the bearings can be cleaned?

 

[madscatty]

Hi. Thank you for your advice. The unit spins at 96 RPM and does not change appreciably via the variable resistor pot. Is the next step to add a single drop of oil to the pulley and/or take the motor unit apart and see if the bearings can be cleaned?

I was able to add a small amount of WD40 to the LC117B Copal motor. I am not able to open the motor completely to inspect the internals. At this point the disk can achieve 300 RPM and most of the noise is gone. I will let it run awhile and see how it behaves. So far, it still won't boot a disk (tried all ten that I have). The carriage doesn't seem to move on its own. I did clean the rails with isopropyl alcohol and it does easily move by hand.

All of the components on the boards passed continuity tests. The motor is getting around 11 Volts while engaged.