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Mac 512K and floppy drive
- Thread starter toples50
- Start date
It's fairly easy to disassemble and repair. You probably need to re-lubricate the disk mechanism. Take a look at this article: Fixing Mac 400K Disk Drives.
It's slightly more complicated than the 800K and 1.4MB drives, but not too hard. Just follow the directions.
I know from experience that your drive's grease has solidified. Probably even turned into a solid. It's going to be some tough work getting to loose again, but well worth it. I recommend getting a dental pick ($7 at Walmart), hard toothbrush, and some isopropyl alcohol. You'll need to soften the old grease and possibly pick away at it with your dental pick (useful tool anyway for cleaning.) Then use the brush and some more alcohol to scrub away at it, get all the parts moving.
You can then re-grease it. I used lithium grease, but there may be better alternatives.
I know from experience that your drive's grease has solidified. Probably even turned into a solid. It's going to be some tough work getting to loose again, but well worth it. I recommend getting a dental pick ($7 at Walmart), hard toothbrush, and some isopropyl alcohol. You'll need to soften the old grease and possibly pick away at it with your dental pick (useful tool anyway for cleaning.) Then use the brush and some more alcohol to scrub away at it, get all the parts moving.
You can then re-grease it. I used lithium grease, but there may be better alternatives.
Last evening I tried a new technique. I removed the floppy disk cassette (the part that moves up and down when you insert and eject a disk) and dipped it in a pot of boiling water for 10-15 seconds or so. Then I took a rag and wiped off the grease. Great time-saver!
You need to remove 6 screws to remove the cassette assembly: 4 are on the bottom of the mechanism, between the edges of the green PCB and the cast metal base. The other two are on the left and right sides of the eject motor.
Hold the assembly at the back by the motor, so you don't dip any of the motor parts in the water. Only dip the front part where the floppy disk actually goes.
Another technique I used a few months ago was similar, but I put the entire floppy disk drive in a convection oven set to 150ºF or so for about 5 minutes. This quickly loosened the grease and I wiped it off.
But I now prefer the boiling water method. Much quicker.
You need to remove 6 screws to remove the cassette assembly: 4 are on the bottom of the mechanism, between the edges of the green PCB and the cast metal base. The other two are on the left and right sides of the eject motor.
Hold the assembly at the back by the motor, so you don't dip any of the motor parts in the water. Only dip the front part where the floppy disk actually goes.
Another technique I used a few months ago was similar, but I put the entire floppy disk drive in a convection oven set to 150ºF or so for about 5 minutes. This quickly loosened the grease and I wiped it off.
But I now prefer the boiling water method. Much quicker.
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