Embarrassing Sony MP F75W damage

[matttintoshplus]

Went to clean my Performa 475 floppy drive and I stretched out the spring. Rookie mistake, I know. Is there a way to re-tighten the spring? Or do I have to find a replacement? If so... anyone know where I can get my hands on one without paying an arm and a leg?

I'm not actually sure if the drive worked to begin with but I'd like to get it up and running. At the very least, I'd like to find a way to transfer files to and from this bad boy without having to buy a hundred-dollar adapter.

Any ideas or advice are more than welcome, thanks

 

[jmacz]

Which of the four springs is it? There’s the two short on the side, one thin medium length near the eject motor, and the one big long one on top. I am not sure I have seen a replacement sold although there are tons of springs on Amazon in variety kits you could try out.

I believe the long one and the two short ones have to be at the right sweet spot in tension or else you will either find the disk won’t eject (too strong for the eject motor) or disk won’t get sucked in (too weak). But given the spring is shot, you could try cutting some coils (one at a time) until you find that right balance between the disk being ejected and also being sucked in properly. Doesn’t hurt to try as the spring is already stretched and can’t be restored.

The thin medium length spring is more forgiving from what I remember.

 

[matttintoshplus]

I can double check the length if that would help, but it's the spring that holds down the top head

 

[jmacz]

Annotated an image I found online.



Spring A is the one most sensitive to proper tension from my experience. Too tight and the motor isn't strong enough to eject the disk. Too loose and the disk doesn't get sucked into the drive when you're first inserting it. Spring C and D are small and pull the carrier down when inserting the disk. Spring B was more forgiving in terms of tension.

I had a drive once where Spring A was stretched (but not by an extreme amount). I was able to cut a few coils off the spring to get the drive sucking in the disk and ejecting properly.

I wasn't sure which spring you were referring to... but you mentioned head so I hope it wasn't the spring E inside the head mechanism?

 

[jmacz]

If it really is the head (E in the picture in my last post), I saw a video where someone talks about a last effort to fix it. I think it was near the end of this video. Not sure if it will really help but since it's stretched, you might as well try.

 

[CC_333]

Well, technically the head has two springs.

There's the visible metal leaf spring that attaches the upper head to the lower head, and then there's a regular coiled spring that is located in between the upper and lower heads, back where they meet. This one is responsible for pulling the heads together.

There are several steps on each end, so if the spring is stretched a bit, one can adjust it to compensate.

c

 

[matttintoshplus]

If it really is the head (E in the picture in my last post), I saw a video where someone talks about a last effort to fix it. I think it was near the end of this video. Not sure if it will really help but since it's stretched, you might as well try.

I watched the part that you were talking about, it was incredibly informative. I'm going to try that out and see if it works, that's exactly the issue that I'm having. Thank you!

 

[croissantking]

I accidentally did this to one of my newly acquired drives that came with a battery bombed SE/30, I made the mistake of lifting the head too high and then it stayed up. I tried to dismantle it but one of the hex-headed screws at 'E' snapped while I was unscrewing it...

I still think I may be able to fix it!

 

[lobust]

I accidentally did this to one of my newly acquired drives that came with a battery bombed SE/30, I made the mistake of lifting the head too high and then it stayed up. I tried to dismantle it but one of the hex-headed screws at 'E' snapped while I was unscrewing it...

I still think I may be able to fix it!

I did the exact same thing to my Q700 floppy when I cleaned and rebuilt it - I had no choice but separate the heads a little as they had some hard build up on them that wouldn't clean off with normal methods, and in the process I bent the spring and broke one of the screws.

Can confirm that it works just fine with one screw and the spring pushed back down again until there is some positive pressure on the little plastic tab and it's not floating.

 

[croissantking]

I got mine back together but the heads are misaligned now. It struggles to read disks formatted on other machines but not ones that it’s formatted itself.

Is the correct fitment of the stepper motor a consideration here as well as head alignment?

 

[croissantking]

I got my drive working like 95% now, fiddled with the stepper motor and the position of the upper read head. Quite pleased about that.

I have another of these drives out of a IIci that looks to be in stunningly clean condition, yet it is dead as a doornail. I exchanged head assemblies with the 95% working drive and like this neither drive works! This should be fun.

Love these drives though. Very satisfying to use, watch and listen to.

 

[matttintoshplus]

I got my drive working like 95% now, fiddled with the stepper motor and the position of the upper read head. Quite pleased about that.

I have another of these drives out of a IIci that looks to be in stunningly clean condition, yet it is dead as a doornail. I exchanged head assemblies with the 95% working drive and like this neither drive works! This should be fun.

Love these drives though. Very satisfying to use, watch and listen to.

Impressive! How did you manage to get the top head right?

 

[croissantking]

Impressive! How did you manage to get the top head right?

Well, I looked at this other dead drive that had not been tampered with, and saw that I’d lined up the top head incorrectly. So really just by eye, referring to the other drive.

 

[luRaichu]

Hmm, I have the same problem with my LC floppy drive. Gonna watch that video and see what happens.

 

[matttintoshplus]

Well, I looked at this other dead drive that had not been tampered with, and saw that I’d lined up the top head incorrectly. So really just by eye, referring to the other drive.

You should send a pic of the properly calibrated one

 

[croissantking]

You should send a pic of the properly calibrated one

 

[croissantking]

I’ve been playing with the zero track sensor on this other drive and nada. I honestly think someone yanked the cable on this and fried it.

 

[s_pupp]

Well, technically the head has two springs.

There's the visible metal leaf spring that attaches the upper head to the lower head, and then there's a regular coiled spring that is located in between the upper and lower heads, back where they meet. This one is responsible for pulling the heads together.

There are several steps on each end, so if the spring is stretched a bit, one can adjust it to compensate.

c

I saw the presence of the coil spring on the underside of the floppy drive for the first time yesterday, and by tightening this spring was able to return to working order an SE/30’s floppy drive head that I stretched out 14 years ago. It’s quite possible that your post was lying dormant in the back of my mind, since I recall reading through this thread before.

I wrapped the spare spring coils around the spring support at the bottom of the mechanism, and secured them in place with 3M CA glue for plastic, after applying CA glue activator on the plastic support itself. I don’t know how well it will hold long-term, but the head works perfectly right now.

An advantage of tightening the coil spring over adjusting the flat spring is that the angle of the heads is not changed with the former method, so that there are no upper head alignment issues complicating the repair.