Warning - floppy drive head mechanism glue is deteriorating

[s_pupp]

I was finishing up minor work on a good 1.4MB MFD-75W floppy drive. When I inserted a disk to test my handiwork, the upper read/write head fell off the mechanism. The epoxy holding the head in place was in brittle, easily broken pieces. I looked at a number of nonfunctional drives, and saw that a few of them had broken adhesive and dangling/dislodged heads. If the movement of the drive during my work was enough to jar the head loose, it likely would not have survived being mailed to someone as a working unit.

Given the age and condition of the old adhesive, it may be worthwhile applying some adhesive to working drives to prevent the heads falling off during normal use. I'd expect that the adhesive should be applied sparingly in the areas where the old adhesive is crumbling away.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have seen a broken head in the past and of course plastic broken on Mac auto inject drives (which can now be replaced).

Not sure how you could glue the head back on and keep it aligned so it reads disks reliably.

I don't recall having many issues with PC floppy drives to be honest.

 

[s_pupp]

My first attempt t

I have seen a broken head in the past and of course plastic broken on Mac auto inject drives (which can now be replaced).

Not sure how you could glue the head back on and keep it aligned so it reads disks reliably.

I don't recall having many issues with PC floppy drives to be honest.

My first attempt at fixing this occurred prior to my leaving the above post, and was a complete failure. It involved making a silicone putty imprint of the heads of an unbroken floppy head mechanism, using this imprint on the broken one to position the upper head where it belongs, then applying thin CA glue meant for plastic from the top of the mechanism. Unfortunately, by applying the very low viscosity CA glue from above, it had dripped down and hardened on both heads. Additionally, by using too much CA glue, I had immobilized the upper head. At least the acetone I was forced to use to clean the heads with took off all the stubborn silicone oil that the putty had left. Anything that involves acetone is not the way to fix these.

I did what I recommended above a few minutes ago, and it worked. Rather than using the silicone putty imprint, I lined up the replacement head using the marks left from the old head, brushed on some CA glue accelerator, and used a toothpick to apply small amounts of CA glue where the original adhesive had been. To my surprise, the drive now works. I didn't have to make any adjustments.

 

[Unknown_K]

At least you didn't have a disk in there ripping the data cable.

 

[mdxxd]

Does anyone know what is supposed to keep the tension on that upper read/write head? It's supposed to rest firmly against the floppy disk media but mine is floating in the air like 5+ mm. Am I missing a spring somewhere?

 

[Byrd]

Do you have the little clip properly in place?

 

[luRaichu]

Am I missing a spring somewhere?

Probably not, although there is a spring on the bottom of the head assembly that can be adjusted.

 

[joevt]

I think I remember placing a penny on top of the read/write head of a Mac Plus or Mac Classic floppy drive so that it would read floppies, back when Canada had pennies.

 

[jmacz]

Does anyone know what is supposed to keep the tension on that upper read/write head? It's supposed to rest firmly against the floppy disk media but mine is floating in the air like 5+ mm. Am I missing a spring somewhere?

Watch from 39:11 (39 minutes and 11 seconds into the video). He specifically mentions what you can do if you have stretched out the heads so that they are no longer against the media. Fairly common mistake that's made while attempting to clean the heads.

 

[mdxxd]

Thank you Jmacz and others for the quick reply. I was Able to bend it back using Bruce’s technique and it worked!!! My SE/30 is up and running again, and on the internet. My end goal is to use it for AI chat. If anyone knows a bbs/proxy i can use to talk to AI without https, please let me know

 

[adespoton]

I think I remember placing a penny on top of the read/write head of a Mac Plus or Mac Classic floppy drive so that it would read floppies, back when Canada had pennies.

We've still got pennies! I have them stored on read/write heads and wedged in various other interesting locations. Just because the Canadian Mint no longer honours them doesn't mean they vanished

 

[olePigeon]

Hmm. I never noticed the head separation issue. Now I wanna revisit some of my troublesome drives. Maybe the heads aren't in their natural resting state.