I have had his Tascam 246 for a long time- almost a decade - and only used it very occasionally. Being shut in for the foreseeable future, I thought I would take a look at this and see if I could use it to get some creative juices flowing while I am unable to do my usual band practices.
Last time I got it out, before we moved to our current house about 2 years ago, it would not play or fast forward properly. Specifically, when you pressed play, it would fast forward with the heads engaged (bad for speakers!) and when you pressed FF nothing would happen. Getting it back out yesterday, I confirmed that the same issue was present.
I did a little internet research and learned that if the heads and pinch roller do not fully engage, that the tape will fast wind. So at least I knew where to start looking. I pulled the back cover off, to inspect the transport mechanism. The smaller (control) belt looked a little suspicious, and I confirmed that if I helped the cam along as it engaged the heads and pinch roller, that it would play properly. So clearly a control belt issue.
I saw a youtube video where someone used regular rubber bands to test the mechanism of a 244 (which has the same transport as the 246) so I thought, why not? In our kitchen junk drawer I found a rubber band of approximate shape and size and slapped it in (the red one in the photo below). That did the trick! Play and FF now work as expected. I hope this rubber band fix will keep me going until I can order an official belt set and install it.
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