Northside Service Company

The cassette player can be removed from the 2542 as a complete assembly.  This is a simple design but it's not without its challenges when repairing it.

This design uses drive wheels which have rubber "tires" on their outer rims.  These tires rub and grip other moving and turning parts to make the player run.  When these tires get old, they get hard and their surfaces become glazed and to smooth to grip properly.

Since these types of parts are no longer available I found a cleaner that is designed for the rollers inside copiers and printers that deglazes and softens the rollers that transport the paper through the machines.

This worked well to soften the tires which allowed them to grip properly.

The red arrows point to the drive wheels with the rubber tires

The green arrow points to the capstan roller which is also rubber. This was treated just like the tires, which removed a glazed surface and improved the grip of the roller.

The blue arrow points to the tape playback / record head.  This was replaced because the original head was so worn that the playback level was very low.

The yellow arrow points to the erase head.