Recapping Floppy Drives?

[smrieck511]

Do people do this?? (My floppy drives operate well.)

I've recapped my Logic boards, analog boards and power supplies in my SE and SE/30. Just wondering if the floppy drive caps are any concern?

 

[Macobyte]

I believe it’s good and standard practice to do so. When I had my SE/30 completely cleaned and recapped that service included the floppy drive. Be sure to replace the cheese gear when you’re in there too.

 

[dochilli]

Bother with recapping floppy drives?

I had a marathon clean / lubrication with some troublesome floppy drives I have. Ran into a few inconsistent issues that (sometimes) swapping parts around fixed, such as swapping heads around from different mechanisms. Some heads work better than others, even though they've all been thoroughly...

68kmla.org

 

[s_pupp]

I believe it’s good and standard practice to do so. When I had my SE/30 completely cleaned and recapped that service included the floppy drive. Be sure to replace the cheese gear when you’re in there too.

I’ve had trouble with replacement gears. They are not quite to the specs of the originals. The eject motor sounds strained, or even stops. All my stock gears are in great condition, and I’m not at all anxious to file down each and every tooth of my twelve replacement gears in the hope I can get them closer to the specs of the originals.

 

[cooltr6]

While looking around for videos about recapping floppy drives for the SE/30, saw this post. Albeit a bit late to the game, MacEffects sells a really fine replacement for the gears in the 800k and 1.44mb floppy drives that fail. While not the original, I have replaced the failed gear in 4 floppy drives so far, with zero issues. Do yourself a favor...look into the MacEffects replacement.

3-Pack Apple Auto-inject Floppy Gears Tune-O-Gear

MacEffects is proud to offer a 3-pack replacement auto-inject floppy gear. These co-branded gears are made in Japan in partnership with Infinity Products. These are replacement second gears that can be used with Omron motors (see photos 2 and 3) for MP-F51W and MP-F75W. Set of 3 pcs, Made in...

maceffects.com

 

[smrieck511]

While looking around for videos about recapping floppy drives for the SE/30, saw this post. Albeit a bit late to the game, MacEffects sells a really fine replacement for the gears in the 800k and 1.44mb floppy drives that fail. While not the original, I have replaced the failed gear in 4 floppy drives so far, with zero issues. Do yourself a favor...look into the MacEffects replacement.

3-Pack Apple Auto-inject Floppy Gears Tune-O-Gear

MacEffects is proud to offer a 3-pack replacement auto-inject floppy gear. These co-branded gears are made in Japan in partnership with Infinity Products. These are replacement second gears that can be used with Omron motors (see photos 2 and 3) for MP-F51W and MP-F75W. Set of 3 pcs, Made in...

maceffects.com

oh yes, I definitely replaced the gears long ago… That's all good. Just curious about the capacitor situation with these. Thanks.

 

[Phipli]

I've never needed to recap a floppy drive, I haven't seen it as a failure mode yet, not that it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

[cooltr6]

That's all good. Just curious about the capacitor situation with these.

Well...on the subject of recapping floppy drives...if you're taking the time to recap a logic or analog board in a Compact Mac, it's a good idea to go over the floppy drive with a fine tooth comb. JDW put together a very in-depth and informative slice of videotape about how to recap a floppy drive.

His words, paraphrased, "Even caps on a floppy drive don't escape the ravages of time.". I took those words to be...if a cap can leak, it will...so while things are apart, just do it. It's a great opportunity as well to change the troublesome gear, clean the 30+ year old grease and oil up and put fresh lubricants down so your floppy drive works just as new.

Since you have an SE/30...you'll want to watch two videos - the first is for the 800k drive...BUT...this video goes into the finer points of lubrication and tear down. The other, for the 1.44mb drive talks specifically about the teardown and points to keep in mind.

800k video:

1.44mb video:

The even better part of both these videos, is that JDW outlines the lubricants that *need* to be used [don't just use any ol' thing at hand]...and provides Mouser carts with all of the caps you're going to need to do the job rightly. Be aware that some caps may be EOL, so find acceptable substitutes.

For myself, I have a number of Compact Macs torn down, including two SE/30's that are all getting a good going over. You can bet, even if the caps look good on the floppy drives, they too will be given the same going over.

Keeping our Vintage Macs alive! Hope this helps. =)

 

[olePigeon]

I've recapped two troublesome floppy drives, but it didn't lead to any improvement. At most I would consider it preventative maintenance. I can absolutely confirm that those tiny caps are leaking.

 

[cooltr6]

Interesting that I jumped into this thread when I did. The parts for recapping floppy drives arrived earlier today. Just tore down the first 800k drive...lo and behold, 3 of the 5 caps there...had leaked, albeit just a little bit. One even when I was removing it, the leg barely caught the bottom of the board and the leg came right out, with zero force.

In the adventure that is recapping...about to embark on the fun that is recapping 800k and 1.44mb floppy drives. Woo hoo! Gonna be an interesting ride.

 

[olePigeon]

@cooltr6 In the grand scale of things that need recapping (motherboards, arcade CRTs, etc.), these floppy drives are as easy as it gets.

 

[alectrona2988]

i've had a 1.44mb superdrive with a few leaky caps. console5 apparently sells kits for them (mp-f75w-01?) which are very cheap. not sure about manual inject drives. if anyone needs one of *those* i've got a spare. not sure if it works, i'll need to test it

 

[cooltr6]

@olePigeon Oh...I agree...an easy job to get done, to say the least. There are those major components that need lots more attention.

I will say, that in the first 3-800k drives that I've recapped so far, all of them have suffered some form of cap leakage. The third one, was the worst yet, with 4 of 5 caps having given up the ghost. Preventive maintenance or peace of mind, it's just gonna be one more of those things on the list of to-do's when restoring a Vintage Mac. =)