How can I fix these old Sony floppy drives?

[LCGuy]

So anyway, I have three old-skool Sony/Apple floppy drives, two 800k and one SuperDrive (and no, it doesn't burn DVDs), each with their own problem:

MFD-51W-10

The MFD 51W-10 looks mechanically ok, disks insert/eject ok, but when you insert a disk, the top read-write head doesn't go all the way down. Also, one thing I've noticed, is that there's a small PCB with some wires and a couple of resistors next to the OMRON R2DG-31 motor that isn't secure - what is this meant to be secured to, and how can I fix it?

MFD-51W-03

The MFD-51W-03 has a mechanical problem...when you insert a disk, the bottom part that normally comes forward, that has the eject handle on it doesn't move, and this prevents you from inserting the disk. All the springs look ok, they look identical to that on the other drives, but for some reason that bottom part of the drive doesn't seem to want to move

MFD-75W-01G SuperDrive

The MFD-75W-01G SuperDrive has a mechanical problem also - the bottom bit does come forward a bit, but not far enough, and therefore the disk doesn't go all the way down. The top R/W head doesn't move an inch.

Are any of these drives salvageable, and if so, how can I fix them?

Thanks in advance

 

[LCGuy]

AARGH! STUPID floppy drive!!!!!!!!

I was working on the MFD-51W-03 this afternoon, i came very close to getting it into top shape, but now I've stretched the DAMN spring that holds the top head down. Stupid, stupid, stupid floppy drive, should never have been invented! :-/ Is it fixable? :'( If not, can I salvage the spring from a PC floppy drive? I have heaps of those b@$tards... :-/

 

[Franklinstein]

The first and third ones, you should completely disassemble, clean out all of the old grease, regrease, and reassemble. They should work fine afterward, though they may smell oddly depending on what kind of grease is used. Not sure what kind of grease is used originally, might be some kind of white lithium... you could probably get away with general purpose grease, though.

The head spring isn't too difficult to adjust. With careful inspection, you should notice a small series of steps, upon which one end of the head spring sits. Try notching that end of the head spring up a step or two and see if that helps any.

The second one seems to have been mangled between now and then... If you find a Sony PC floppy drive, you may find a direct replacement spring. Otherwise, you can try to modify one from a different brand of drive. You're really not losing anything at this point, so no harm in trying, I guess.

The springs are relatively fragile, as they don't exert all that much force; just enough to put the head in full contact with the media. Too much force would pinch the media between the heads, which would ruin the heads, the media, or both, if the disk is even able to turn with the excessive pressure.

 

[tomlee59]

Follow Franklinstein's advice, and you're likely to get at least two of them working. The grease tends to turn gooey over time, and that's what commonly causes the heads not to load properly, or the disk auto-insert to fail. Just clean off all the old grease, and then re-lube.

On the first drive with the head loading problem, see if the head assembly is actually mangled. I've seen this on a couple of drives, probably caused by overly aggressive attempts to pull out a stuck disk. If that's not the problem, then your chances of repair go up markedly.

 

[LCGuy]

Yeah, on the MFD-51W-10, to be honest, the head assembly looks perfect, and if you gently push it down it goes down, it just doesn't stay down. For the record this drive was out of use for a couple of years before I discovered that it had the problem, so maybe the spring went limp due to being fully extended for a long amount of time. Might be a case to consider inserting a disk into any old style Apple floppy drives that you intend to store for long periods of time...

 

[tomlee59]

Inspect the head assembly vary carefully -- is it really free? Or is the chassis incompletely loaded? If the mechanism binds at all, it can stop short of fully loading. Then the head assembly will be held up a small amount. IIRC, the head lives on a black plastic tab which, in turn, has a small extension that rests on the metal frame when unloaded. When loaded, there should be air visible between the tab and frame.

 

[LCGuy]

I've had a look at the drives this morning.

The MFD-51W-10 is a complete loss, sadly. It turns out that the cable going to the top head has been ripped, so therefore, thats a complete loss.

The MFD-51W-03 is looking the best of all, this morning I pulled the head assembly out and had a look at the spring, and it was exactly as Franklinstein said. I moved it up a couple of notches until it was back to normal, and the head is now installed in the drive again. Disks insert/eject without a problem, and the head now goes all the way down, though it doesn't seem to read any disks. I've attacked it with a cotton tip dipped in isopropyl alcohol, so we'll see if that makes any difference.

The SuperDrive is looking a bit better, I've had a play around with it, and disks now insert/eject properly, but the head assembly looks like its had it...no matter what, I can't seem to get the top head to pull down like normal.

 

[LCGuy]

Ok, little update, the MFD-51W-03 is WORKING! Tried it this afternoon when I got offline, and it seems to be fine...I can read, write and format without any problems.

Had a bit of a play with the SuperDrive as well...I pulled out the head assembly and had a bit of a look, I moved the spring to one of the lower steps, to bring the top head closer, but it still didn't help much. I took the spring out to have a look, and the spring itself is fine. I wonder what the go is...oh well, at least I've got one drive working.

 

[Mac128]

Good tutorial:

http://www.wiu.edu/users/mujde/techsupport/floppydrive/cleanflpdrv.html

 

[barana]

those MFD-51W-03 and -10 drives u are using, are they mac 800k drives?

P.S. didnt you used to live in bundaberg ?

i see you have sydney, now as ur location

 

[LCGuy]

Yep, they're both 800k drives, and yep, I used to live in the Bundaberg area, now in Sydney

 

[MidnightCommando]

lol, thread necromancy

 

[jsarchibald]

I decided to do a similar thing over the weekend, as I have a Classic and Classic II with floppy drives that were gummed up.

I used the wiki on this site to take apart the drives, and clean them up. They now work smoothly, and the disk goes in first time, every time. Only problem is that one of them tries to read a disk, says it needs formatting, and then fails right at the end. So, the mechanicals are great, but now there is some sort of read error!