Amstrad CPC464 Plus: Datasette Key Cleaning
4My Amstrad CPC 464 Plus - Part 1.
These were never released in Australia, coming quite late in the life of 8-bit computers. Unfortunately this example wasn't packed properly and so suffered some nasty damage on its trip from Europe ... looks like lots of bubble-wrap side-to-side, but not much top-to-bottom.
So I've had it apart re-glueing what I can. It was pretty grubby so have taken the opportunity to give it a good scrub.
This "quick" (pfft) video simply details how to disassemble the Datasette keys so they can be properly cleaned. Similar process for other tape recorders.
This model Datasette has two drive belts - the main belt appears to measure 65mm internal diameter (AVBELT101) and the secondary belt measures 35mm (AVBELT74). Both are 1.2mm square section. Actually the secondary belt seems to be the same as the original 464's tape counter belt.
(Item codes for the belts from https://cpc.farnell.com/)
The rest of the 464 is almost finished - just waiting for the glue to dry on a big chuck of plastic that was smashed off from the side.