Mac Plus floppy drive jammed shut?

[EvieSigma]

I just picked up a Mac Plus that works, but the floppy drive seems to be jammed in the down position despite there not being a disk loaded. Is this something I could fix just by cleaning and lubricating the drive or is this a more serious issue?

 

[jupo]

Almost all of my drives have come back to life with cleaning & lubrication - something like 38 out of 40. Does the manual eject work at all?

It could also come from a gear in the eject motor mechanism crumbling apart. If the manual eject works and you clean it up and get good movement in and out manually, but when you have the Mac try to eject it the motor just spins endlessly, you'll know that's the issue. There's a guy selling a precision 3d-printed replacement gear for the one that usually goes, if that's the case.

 

[jessenator]

+1 for the above. Get out a beefy paperclip if you still have those sitting around  

 

[EvieSigma]

Almost all of my drives have come back to life with cleaning & lubrication - something like 38 out of 40. Does the manual eject work at all?

It could also come from a gear in the eject motor mechanism crumbling apart. If the manual eject works and you clean it up and get good movement in and out manually, but when you have the Mac try to eject it the motor just spins endlessly, you'll know that's the issue. There's a guy selling a precision 3d-printed replacement gear for the one that usually goes, if that's the case.

Manual eject pushes the mechanism up but then it sinks back down once I pull the paperclip back out.

 

[maceffects]

Manual eject pushes the mechanism up but then it sinks back down once I pull the paperclip back out.

Its not locking in the upright position, most likely because of needing cleaned and lubricated its not getting fully in the right position. 

 

[EvieSigma]

That's what I thought, I'll have to clean it out and hopefully it'll come back to life.

 

[jupo]

FYI, once you pull the drive out of the case, you can push the manual eject tab more easily than with a paperclip. Get the manual in and out working smoothly before trying to test it powered up.

 

[EvieSigma]

Cleaning the floppy drive absolutely did the trick! This Plus is still ugly though and I don't seem to have anything non-conductive to widen the picture with, but it's actually usable now!