Beocord 3300 – play spindle not turning

[CharlieWednesday]

I realise I’m very much chancing my arm here, but just in case anyone else has had the same issue!

I got my hands on a Beocord 3300 recently, which I thought I might gift to a friend who I know would make use of it.  It was cheap on eBay because it needed new belts, but is in fantastic cosmetic condition.

I have replaced belts on many B&O tape decks before and always successfully so far, but I’m having trouble with this one.  The new belts seem to be fitted correctly, and everything is turning quietly and smoothly, but it’s still having trouble playing tapes.  It will sometimes play, but only rarely.  Most of the time the pinch roller engages and turns, but the right spindle (the play spindle) does not.  With the cover off you can see the little white wheel that is connected to the paly spindle by a tiny belt is turning (I think that’s something to do with the auto-stop mechanism?), but the spindle either does not turn at all, or tries to turn in jerky, noisy movements.  It’s the same with FF – sometimes it works, sometimes it makes a racket and doesn’t work.

With no tape inserted, if I press Play or FF, everything seems to work smoothly and quietly, so it seems the tension of a tape inserted is causing it trouble.

I notice there is a black plastic ‘brake’ mechanism above the spindles that lifts away from both spindles when you press Play, FF or RW, so I wondered if that wasn’t lifting as far as it should. However, I can see (without a tape interested) it does seem to be clearing as it should.  It’s hard to tell  if it is clearing as much as it should when a tape is inserted, of course.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Location: Liverpool
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