Sony BM-23 portable dictator problem

[jbclem]

My BM-23 will PLAY a tape for a few seconds then stop. As it stops there is
a high pitched signal that will continue until I put it on STOP. Sometimes
it will stop playing and I can hear the motor spinning, and after five or
ten seconds the high pitched signal will come on. Sometimes it won't play
(the tape won't move) but I can always hear the motor spinning. Often, when
it won't PLAY at all, if I put it in rewind then release the slide, it will
play for the above mentioned 5-10 seconds before stopping and signalling.

At the same time I notice the LCD counter is blank, no readout at all. The
batteries check out with 1.28v in each. When I listen to the motor
spinning, it seems strong. I know nothing about this, but sounds like a
belt slipping, though I don't know if that would cause the LCD counter to
stay blank. (even when I can get it to play for 10 seconds, the counter
stays blank, no blinking, no flashing, no text.

If this is a belt, is it easy to disassemble this small dictator to replace
it? This is a real good dictator so I'd like to figure out how to fix it.

Can somneone give me advice on this...

Thanks, John

[jbclem]

More on my Sony BM-23...I've just noticed that the cassette compartment lid
is not quite as flush as it could be when closed. If I hold it closed
tight, the tape counter will work and the tape will PLAY. I held it for a
few minutes and a tape kept playing until I loosened my grip. So that puts
a different spin on this problem. The top front (with the dictator standing
up) part of the lid is where there seems to be some looseness. With the lid
closed I can still push that edge down a small amount.

Is there a sensor switch, on that Top Front side, that has to be pushed in a
certain amount before the dictator will work? Also, there is a small screw
missing on the one side where the lid bracket connects to the lid, one or
four screws. Where would I go to buy such a small small screw?

John

"jbclem" <jbc...@charter.net> wrote in message
news:i6uqgb$h3r$1...@news.eternal-september.org...

[William Sommerwerck]

This is almost certainly caused by a failed auto-shutoff circuit.

The supply hub (I think) has a switch that periodically opens and closes a
circuit. When this cycle stops, the transport is shut off.

This happened to a Sony dictation machine I owned 25 years ago. (Gack!) The
switch was a pair of wires touching either side of the hub. They were
"opened" and "closed" by a metal bar running through the hub. When one of
the wires got mispositioned, the switch no longer worked. I tore into the
machine and repositioned the wire. A Sony tech told me he was surprised
someone without the proper equipment had been able to do it.

[William Sommerwerck]

I should have read the second post more closely, as it definitely puts a
different spin <ar, ar> on things.

My initial reaction is that there's no point to an interlock, as the
auto-shutoff switch automatically serves that function -- without a tape in
the compartment, the supply hub won't turn and the machine will shut off
after a few seconds.

I would start by figuring out why the lid won't close fully, and solve
/that/ problem first. It might automatically solve the other. A careful
visual inspection of the guts might be all you need.