Nakamichi Dragon Play Question

[londoncalling]

Hello everyone!

Recently obtained an absolutely beautiful Dragon. Had been looking for one for a couple of years and finally found a great one. Have been enjoying it for a couple of months with absolutely no problems. Last night, went to play a tape and could not. When you hit play (either direction) the play button lit for a second and than went back to stop. Fast Forward and rewind worked. Kept trying to get it to play. Tried different tapes, fast forwarded and rewinded to different parts of tape. No luck. After about 10 minutes of trying different things, the unit started working! Sounded great and everything worked for balance of the night.

This morning same problem happens again, but so far, no luck on getting it to play today.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[londoncalling]

Just tried it again and now its working! I'm baffled...

Just played one song from about 5 different tapes with no problem.

Any ideas?

 

[NakTech]

Hi,
It could be a bad counter belt. Or the transport may require a full rebuild.

 

[NakTech]

There are only 3 leaf switches. No sensors. The only 2 sensors are inside the direct drive motors. They have nothing to do with the cassette as they keep working as long as the machine is powered on. If the both the capstans are spinning continuously after power up, they are fine. The capstan motors do not cause intermittent problems. It is a good idea to clean the leaf switches as Homiyar suggested. It is recommended to use hi quality spray or cleaning oil for cleaning. Scratching will affect the life of the switch badly.