About lubricating that floppy drive...

[LaPorta]

It’s been irking me that no one really, really knows what was used to lubricate those 800k/1.4 MB Sony drives. I’ve seen schematics and operating specs, but never maintenance or overhaul specs/guides. I figure there must be a service guide for them; whether or not anyone has it is another matter. I’ve searched high and low. Soon I am going to try and write an official letter to Sony to see if they would have this sort of thing in their archives. They seem to be the sort of company that

takes pride in and keeps examples of what they make.

No one has ever seen this sort of guide, have they?

 

[jessenator]

I always thought it was just white lithium grease ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  at least that's what the stuff in my tape decks and VCRs looked like.

Has anyone had any adverse effects from using it? Is it too viscous? etc.

 

[LaPorta]

It seemed to me to be too viscous, but it may have just been too liberally applied by me. I got stuff that was even less viscous but still sometimes have a similar issue.

I just like being sure.

 

[MOS8_030]

I have used white lithium grease or light machine oil like 3-in-1 depending on what I had handy.

Very light applications of either, it doesn't take much.

 

[LaPorta]

I think you are right. I’m just one of those who wants to get to as original as possible. I think I may overdo it and it makes things sluggish. 
 

still, it would be nice to have an official Sony overhaul and maintenance manual. One must exist somewhere.

 

[MOS8_030]

it would be nice to have an official Sony overhaul and maintenance manual. One must exist somewhere.

There probably is one, somewhere, written in Japanese.

 

[LaPorta]

I’d take it...that plus OCR could still help!

 

[CC_333]

I think you are right. I’m just one of those who wants to get to as original as possible. I think I may overdo it and it makes things sluggish. 

Me too. I once squeezed a whole bunch of grease in an otherwise functional ejector motor, and it went from being fairly speedy to sluggish to stuck, depending on the ambient temperature. From a cold start in winter, it would seize up, but exercising it manually a couple times (or just inserting/ejecting the disk a few times) usually got it going well enough, but when I eventually reapplied the grease more conservatively, it was perfect.

So, I think the key is to apply it very thinly, then it won't act like glue when it gets cold, plus it looks more professional.

Whatever the original stuff was, it was probably something similar to the white lithium, so it's probably close enough.

c

 

[Crutch]

My strong recollection - though I can’t recall at all where I learned this - is that white lithium is ideal to use for the general, metal moving parts of the drive mechanism, but NOT inside the ejector motor, precisely because it’s too thick to use in there and can damage the plastic gears.

For that reason, a while ago I bought a tiny tube of Danco Waterproof Silicone Grease (marketed as a “faucet grease”) to use inside the eject motor.  It’s a thinner, clear grease that seems to work great in there.

This is not in any way authoritative information though ...

 

[Iamanamma]

Hi All:

I am working on cleaning some of these old dinosaurs, and was wondering if that plastic sleeve that some of the floppy dives are wrapped in are absolutely necessary?  I usually like to put things back exactly the way I got them out but these things  tear up pretty easily AND make getting the floppy drive out of the bracket MUCH harder.

 

[jessenator]

FWIW I always thought it was electrical insulation—in fact, when i did one swap (where the original sleeve and metal plate didn't fit) I made my own from a roll of gasket material. My newer Panasonic Manual inject models which have no cover on the bottom, actually have 0 contacts and traces on the PCB.

 

[Dog Cow]

I am working on cleaning some of these old dinosaurs, and was wondering if that plastic sleeve that some of the floppy dives are wrapped in are absolutely necessary?

It prevents dust and other particles from falling into the drive.

 

[jessenator]

Ohhh, right on the auto-inject drives. 

Sorry, I have my head constantly in the manual-inject world. On my 4400 it was most definitely for insulation, but now I'm thinking of my old IIsi which had the shield on top, covering the mechanical side.

 

[olePigeon]

I ran into a problem with the plastic sleeve.  I have 2 of them.  When not installed in the floppy drive bay, they work fine.  But after installed, the plastic protector interferes with the eject mechanism somehow.

 

[LaPorta]

For one reason or another, I have never come across a Sony auto-inject with the dust sleeve in place.

One issue I am currently having is my SE's drive appears to be sitting too close to the case on one side, causing disk contact with that side slightly on eject, slowing it down. I am not sure how I managed to misalign it...

 

[dcr]

One issue I am currently having is my SE's drive appears to be sitting too close to the case on one side, causing disk contact with that side slightly on eject, slowing it down. I am not sure how I managed to misalign it...

There's a chance that being misaligned is its natural state.  The drives are old and want to be retired, so they find a way to misalign themselves so you can't use them properly.  I don't remember how many tries it took me to get the floppy drive in mine aligned properly.  And, of course, I didn't test it each time before closing up the case.  No, it looked good and I was confident each time that I had it in the right position, so I put it all back together before testing it.

 

[LaPorta]

Now I’ve got an annoying issue: my 1.4 MB drive that I’ve been working on seizes midway through eject. I don’t know what I do to these things to mess things up so badly.

 

[olePigeon]

Does it have a dust cover?  Mine kept failing to eject with the dust cover on.

 

[LaPorta]

No dust covers. I managed to angle the little rollers on the side and it seems to work again, though probably about 90% of what it should. That's good enough for me: if I keep fooling around, I'll surely only make it worse. They are so finicky...but then again, they are fairly complex pieces of machinery.