Emerson VCR, heads not spinning on play

[RCU]

Hi,

I have an old Emerson VCR, mid-80's model. Has always worked great.
Suddenly, it stopped playing tapes; the tape loads and then immediately
unloads. I opened it up and noticed that the heads were not spinning as
the tape is taken up by the mechanism, and I guess the VCR realizes this
and aborts trying to play the tape. The capstan seems to be doing its
job, and all other functions but play/record work fine. I moved the head
by hand carefully and it spins freely, so it did not get jammed up or
anything.

Suspecting a power supply problem, I checked the STK regulator in the
power supply section. It looked like one of the outputs was dead,
comparing readings with a data sheet. So, I ordered a NTE replacement
part for it and installed it today. However, the heads still aren't
spinning!

What else should I be looking into? Even though it is old, it hasn't seen
*that* much use; the idler and belts look ok. Also there haven't been any
abuse like liquid spills or nasty rental tapes put in it. I would give
the exact model, but the label seems to have gone someplace.

Just looking for a "next step" possibilities here... I have seen
suggestions of the mode switch being bad, but would it typically go bad
suddenly like that? Also it seems that the VCR would probably be a lot
more confused than it is if the mode switch were bad; all that I can see
is going on is that it attempts to operate normally but the heads aren't
moving.

Thanks!

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

I have an old Emerson VCR, mid-80's model. Has always worked great.
Suddenly, it stopped playing tapes; the tape loads and then immediately
unloads. I opened it up and noticed that the heads were not spinning as
the tape is taken up by the mechanism

Check the mode switch. In Emerson VCRs, when the mode switch collects enough
corrosion to the point where there are too many intermittent contact points,
the mode switch will be unable to trigger the drum motor. - Reinhart