I had a Sony tape deck model TC-FX4 that was screwing up on me awhile back and I deceided to send it to the needs fixing pile. Now this is not the best of Sony decks, 2 head, 2 motors, metal tape and soft touch controls which would date it in the 80s somewhere.

Anyway, it would squeal during playback and a good rap on the side seemed to get rid of it. So tonight I was bored and decided to take the darn thing apart even though I have no idea what I was doing or what I was going to do. To make a long story short, I gave the controls a shot of Nu-Trol and put the damn thing back together. It plays like it was brand new, no more squeal and it sounds excellent. Did a full side of a 90 minute metal Maxell for testing and its playing back right now as I type.

Now the $1,000,000 question, What did I do right? I doubt it was the controls I sprayed. I never heard of dirty controls causing squeal.

Don't know without a look :scratch2: Keep us posted...

Eric

Maybe the lube sprayed elsewhere?
But more likely is that it was a noisy clutch which has changed its nature after sitting idle for so long. It may revert back to its noisy state in a few days. (maybe but hopefully not :yes: )
But this is just speculation, as Eric says time will tell.
Cheers
Tony

It was probably a combination of allowing the bad electrons out, and refreshing the oxygen in the case. Hope it lasts. Sometimes you just get lucky. :thmbsp:

If the squeal came from the deck, not out of the speakers, then cleaning the controls would not fix it. It has to be mechanical, like a bad idler tire.