They were doing up-dates on my 'puter at work so I used that as an excuse to take 2 hrs off this PM. Hit my local TSs. Stopped in at the local SA and what did I see... A NICE looking Akai GX-260D for $20.00. I would put the cosmetic condition at 8/8.5 out of 10.... Looks to have been well taken care of. Looks like they may have come with a plastic cover that this one did not have. It is in my garage now....

I would have snarfed it up for that price,looks like a nice deck...how's she work?,does it need new belts?,how's the head wear?I try to find out a little about it before I leave the TS,at least as much I can test in store,while i greedily guard and admire my new find with zealous ambitions!! :yes: . Rob

The guy at the TS had it at home to ck out and fired it up and it played :banana: At some point I will have to open it up and see about new belts... One more project on my table:)

Hey OMI i'll give $27.50 for it and even pay the postage to send it to me hee hee.Nice looking deck good score.
Mushy

Boy those sure look like McIntosh meters being blue... wonder how many people would jump all over that on the bay if you were to throw a Mc label on it somewhere? Kinda be a funny expirement huh?

Just noticed that the pinch roller is in the middle of the heads like the 747. Is this an auto reverse deck too? Good price on it.

have not done any research on it yet. When I saw the condition and $20.00 I just said SOLD:)

One heck of a deal, no doubt! :thmbsp: I'm pretty sure that this is an autorevese model. And having GX heads means that they are not likely to be worn out.

From what little I know I think you are right on the heads.... Short of running sand paper tape over them, they should be in great shape...
I have to look around and get a OM and SM now...

Well went out in the garage to play with it a bit... Found a RTR tape and put it on... Played... One channel was weak... Hmmmmm DEOXIT the jack terminals and that cleared up. The wife was doing some weeding so now that I have both channels working I start to help her. It was singing along and I look over and smoke was pouring out of the top.... But it was still playing great?... Just looked like it was on fire from the amount of black smoke coming out the top... But still playing great... Hmmmmmm WHOA... Jumped up and started pulling plugs and turning things off. Got it unplugged and there was still some smoke wafting up from the top.. Did not smell like electrical.. Hmmmm... I got my screw driver out and opened the back expecting to see scorched parts and burnt stuff all over (it was a LOT of black smoke)... Hmmmm can not see any indication of a fire.... Hmmmm... The motor did feel warm... Hmmmm... Plugged it in and the motor was turning.... Hmmmm ... No idea what just happened, but it looks like this unit will go to the side for a bit untill I can figure out what was burning...

Any one have any ideas... I was thinking old grease in the motor???

omi

A few total blind guesses here: Perhaps you have an AC motor run capacitor or two that was just about to blow. It could also be that you got a little overly enthusiastic with your deoxit, and that some of that might have been trying to ignite on a hot motor. Or perhaps the unit has a voltage plug that was set to the wrong voltage, or there was lots of flamable dust on top of a very-hot power transformer? :headscrat

If you're really lucky maybe there was a mouse nest or something on top of the resistors that set the torque for the reel motors. They get really hot and could easily set some kleenex on fire (mouse nest.)

I only put some deoxit in a q-tip and cleaned the jacks. It was getting late so will have to drag it out in the noon day sun to get a real good look inside. It was a bit dirty inside, but there was A LOT OF SMOKE coming from the top... We are not talking about a little wift of smoke here... I had visions of the deck flashing up in total flames... There was that much smoke... But it kept on playing:) :music: Kinda like Nero in Rome... :music:

The fact that it kept on playing makes me think there is may be nothing wrong with it, other than some foreign matter that cought fire. I like the bad starting cap scenario also.

I was kinda amazed at the amount of smoke that was billowing up from the unit as the unit continued to sing:)

Here's some info on that Akai as well as others.

http://slbender.exactpages.com/akai5.html

Just generic date info for the most part but a few facts thrown in too.

What did the smoke smell like? Maybe it was a hidden stash :)

I need some nachos...

Just where in the circuitry does it get THAT HOT,to ignite whatever it touches :no: :scratch2: .I don't think any component should ramp up to that type of "touch and I will burn the livin' crap out of you" temperature to NOT be something wrong electronically/electrically.It wasn't a belt smokin' was it?Could that much of say..a hardened lubrication torch off and ignite??Got me a wonderin' :sigh: Rob

Just where in the circuitry does it get THAT HOT,to ignite whatever it touches :no: :scratch2: .I don't think any component should ramp up to that type of "touch and I will burn the livin' crap out of you" temperature to NOT be something wrong electronically/electrically.It wasn't a belt smokin' was it?Could that much of say..a hardened lubrication torch off and ignite??Got me a wonderin' :sigh: Rob

All 3 motor reel to reels have these 20W power resistors to control the torque on the reel motors. They are in series with the motors and get very hot, easily enough to burn you, possibly enough to ignite paper.

Nice site cabinover...

I will get a SM and look a little deeper after that. While the smoke was billowing out all seemed to to working great... The tape was moving at the correct speed and both reels seemed to be working correctly... Oil???? A large pile of dust bunnies???? The inside does need a good cleaning...

Hi all; Wow.@!!.a first order GX260d, records and plays in BOTH directions.....later replaced by the GX-265d, then the 266d, and 266dmk2, then the one i have, the end of the line for that series..the GX 267d. direct drive center capstan so it pulls the tape in both directions... mind the tape speed switch tho..they are fragile on these ..on my old GX265d, it came to only be able to run at 7.5 ips....then it began to vary the speed....blooeyz