Classic II 1.44MB Floppy Drive

[betaporter]

The 1.44MB floppy drive in my Classic II wasn't reading disks reliably, so I cleaned the heads. I'm worried that I may have lifted the head too high, as the top head now no longer gets close enough to the disk surface to read. Outwardly, it appears to be in position, but it isn't - it won't read any disks.

After some fiddling, I've found that placing about 3.0 grams of weight on the head armature restores the read function, but I'm trying to figure out if there is a better way to repair this. 

Anyone encountered this problem before?

Bryan

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[Joe]

I have seen the top head dangling over the disk surface on both 800 kB and 1.44 MB drives, but never tried the solution you suggested which I most certainly will now.

In my case I had not cleaned any of the drives so I wonder if the spring perhaps just weakens over the years/decades from being stretched, which is the default mode when no disk is being present and the head is pushed into its topmost position. I noticed that the base the spring hooks up to has three little notches that allows for adjustment of tension, but admittedly I have never quite got any consistent result with that.

 

[betaporter]

Give it a shot! My fix appears to be working consistently.