Pioneer CT-50R
- Thread starter 20tajk7
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^
Inside of the CT-50R.
Main board with microprocessor and the Dolby chips (Hitachi HA12058NT).
The RYM-164 tape transport and power supply board.
The rotating head, the tiny wires are very fragile and can break at the soldering.
View of the springs arrangement of the door and the tape guides (the left one is fitted with an infrared sensor for tape end detection).
The very dirty tape path before service.
Measurement of the tape guides height with a spark plug adjusting shim set.
A not too much complicated mechanism that features two motors and 3 solenoids, trigger (yellow wires) for moving up the head bridge, reverse (green wires) for reversing the head and brake (blue wires) for reel brake release during ff/rew and head positioning during music search mode.
No zinc diecast molded levers & sliders, that's one of the reasons it is more reliable than the infamous 3 motor direct-drive mechanism.
The RXM-111 capstan motor, usually dead of very noisy, I replace it by new Mabuchi EG530AD-2B.
The RXM-112 reel motor, never seen a bad one, just needs a tiny drop of oil in the sintered bearings after almost 40 years.
Main board with microprocessor and the Dolby chips (Hitachi HA12058NT).
The RYM-164 tape transport and power supply board.
The rotating head, the tiny wires are very fragile and can break at the soldering.
View of the springs arrangement of the door and the tape guides (the left one is fitted with an infrared sensor for tape end detection).
The very dirty tape path before service.
Measurement of the tape guides height with a spark plug adjusting shim set.
A not too much complicated mechanism that features two motors and 3 solenoids, trigger (yellow wires) for moving up the head bridge, reverse (green wires) for reversing the head and brake (blue wires) for reel brake release during ff/rew and head positioning during music search mode.
No zinc diecast molded levers & sliders, that's one of the reasons it is more reliable than the infamous 3 motor direct-drive mechanism.
The RXM-111 capstan motor, usually dead of very noisy, I replace it by new Mabuchi EG530AD-2B.
The RXM-112 reel motor, never seen a bad one, just needs a tiny drop of oil in the sintered bearings after almost 40 years.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2010
- Messages
- 6,849
- Location
- Powhatan, Virginia, United States
- Tagline
- WassupYa Mang?
Guys I've been checking this thread out with a bit of interest. Way back and just prior to leaving home for the Nav, I had a CT-S88R that if I recall right was one of those old "floor models" when Circuit City was still around. It had dbx, and quite a decent set of features BUT.. over the years since (I actually gifted it to the old man as I didn't rebuild anything at the time) I do recall it too having that issue with the reversing mech if I'm reading this thread right. For me it was actually any time I tried playing a tape, I would either get lucky and the transport fully engaged, or more times often than not it would still be attempting to get the heads in the correct direction before raising the head deck.
Grease and/or dirty contacts? Wow.. not sure if it's still in the pile of equipment stored until I eventually part with all that stuff. Ears not as good as they used to be, so a preamp + DAC and my two remaining WOPL amps is all that I use now.
Can't YET part with all of the old tape stuff tho.. threads like this make me tempted to pull it all back out.
Grease and/or dirty contacts? Wow.. not sure if it's still in the pile of equipment stored until I eventually part with all that stuff. Ears not as good as they used to be, so a preamp + DAC and my two remaining WOPL amps is all that I use now.
Can't YET part with all of the old tape stuff tho.. threads like this make me tempted to pull it all back out.
Well not all things are the same but when you say the reversing mech does not complete the cycle that would make me think that the old grease they used is gummed up and if cleaned out and Lubriplate put in then the unit would work like new and stay that way. I have seen many transports that have been disabled by that crummy grease they used- it is almost like they knew it was not any good for too long. This was used throughout the industry over there so one brand did not have advantage over the other except maybe Revox because they did not use Japanese grease. Still I had a Tandberg 3014 that had gummed up grease so they did cheap grease too. Revox has it bad caps and so did Nakamichi. No one was perfect.
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2022
- Messages
- 10
Hello, sorry for reviving this old thread, but I need your guidance, I bought this CT-50R player on eBay for 80 dollars, which according to the seller was in perfect condition, I do not specify what he meant if it was aesthetic or functional , the problem is that the player only rotates the idler motor, it rewinds left and right but the capstran motor does not rotate, I opened the lid and I could verify that the motor does not rotate at any time, therefore it does not activate the mechanism to play cassette, any idea you can give me? I wouldn't want to return it because it's scratch free and like new, but this is driving me crazy. thanks any help is appreciated
Service manual is here. You'll have to register to download it. One of our favorite sites.
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/ct-50r.shtml
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/pioneer/ct-50r.shtml
Check for voltage at the capstan motor if it is there then the motor may be dead. turn it a little to see if it will start otherwise you will need a new one. The DC motors in these deck do not last forever and there might be the possibility that you will need to put a EG motor that is like the one you have in there now. The motor shaft will need to be the same as the one in there to fit the pulley. We don't know what the Pioneer speed was at this point. You also need to detect which direction it will turn. CW or CCW. These are the problems we end up dealing with.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 858
- Location
- Absurdy, new name of France
- Tagline
- You never have too much tapedecks ^^