Fostex X-18 - Erase Head isn't Erasing for 1 track?!

[Jeff King]

I have a Fostex X-18 4-track tape recorded. Lately, recording to track 2 has
been messed up. All other tracks record fine. Sound is quieter and
distorted, plus when you record over the track, it doesn't erase! This makes
me think the whole problem is with the erase head.
it seems strange to me that only 1 track is effected.
Does anyone have an idea why the problem might be and how to fix it?

I can't afford to take it to a repair place right now (I just took it there
but this problem never got fixed since I forgot to mention it).

Thanks for any help..
-Jeff King (unlucky with electronic heads)

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Maybe a wire broke off at the erase head. Fairly common type problem.

Mark Z.

"Jeff King" <kin...@uleth.ca> wrote in message
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[u1061771156]

I have fixed a Fostex 250 in the past. The erase head has a separate gap
and winding per track, so one can play some tracks and record others at
the same time. I also had an erase fault on one track, which turned out
to be a broken land on the PCB, where a largeish couping capacitor in
the bias/erase switching 'logic' had come loose.

If you have any test equipment this shouldn't be too hard to fix, just
set two tracks to record and follow the good and bad signal paths
back from the heads to the pcbs.

Incidentally, the main problem with the Fostex I fixed was due to
bad 1nF capacitors (4 of 12 were shorted). These were orange and marked
102JD, I replaced all 12 of course. I presume they had a bad batch that
self destructed over the years - I don't know what other models might be
similarly affected.

Best Regards,
Mike.

[Jeff King]

Thanks for the info!
I'll take a look inside and see what I can figure out.

-Jeff King

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