Nakamichi Dragon Repair

[multiham]

I have a beautiful Nakamichi Dragon which I have owned for about a year. It recently started developing a problem where it will no longer play. When you press the play button, the mechanism engages for about 2 seconds and than stops. The player still fast forwards and rewinds perfectly. The same problem occurs on all tapes I put in and also in the auto-reverse mode. Did some reading both on-line and via search on here. I see that many people, including Dan, recommend ESL in Connecticut. I contacted them and their back-log is such that they wouldn't be able to provide me an estimate for roughly 10 months. The only faster way to get work done, is to have a full restoration done which is roughly $2,500. Don't want to go the full restoration route as that is substantially more than I paid for the unit and the Dragon is in near mint condition and does not (in my mind) require a full restoration.

Two questions for the group:

1. Any suggestions on what could be wrong with the unit and thoughts on how to fix myself?
2. Any other recommendations for a repair service?

Thanks!

[jdandy]

Steve.......There is another Nakamichi service tech who does repairs. He was trained by Nakamichi America back when Nakamichi cassette decks were the rage. Take a look at his website. willyhermannservices.com

One of the reasons Electronics Service Labs (ESL) is backlogged is they do excellent work. They upgraded my Nakamichi CR-7A tape transport to the newer gear drive and did a perfect job. They are not cheap but their work is good.

As far as thinking about a complete restoration, the age of the Nakamichi Dragon will probably make it a contender for that type of service. There most likely are capacitors that need replacing, pinch rollers, lamps, and all the necessary adjustments and alignments necessary to get the Dragon back to top level performance.

[Vintage Pete]

[jdandy]

Steve.......You might also try contacting sound-smith.com. I believe they also repair the top Nakamichi machines.

[multiham]

Dan - Thank you! I will contact both of them. I would really like to go with ESL based on my research, but I don't want to spend $2,000+ if my machine only needs a minor repair. I bought this from a fellow AA who has a very well earned reputation for meticulously taking care of their equipment. There are no marks, or any signs of wear on this unit. Just wish I could get an estimate from ESL in less than 10 months. Says a lot (in a positive way!) about ESL when you have to wait that long for an estimate.

[audiomaniac]

You might also try going over to the tapeheads forum. They talk about this kind of thing all the time.

[G8YU]

I wonder if this is a common Nakamichi problem. My DR-2 does the same thing. It will rewind and fast forward, but will not play. I've considered taking it apart to see if I could repair it myself. My local repair guy quoted a price around a few hundred dollars over the phone. He said it could easily cost more though depending on what he finds after opening it up.

[Maks]

Different motors are used for FF/RW and play. It could be the motor, perhaps the power supply, perhaps the rollers or something as simple as the belt. I put a new belt on a Nak deck I got, didn't fix the play issue, next step will be to recap the power supply...after that it's off to a qualified tech to do a proper restore which is probably the best way to go.

Edit: Oops, this was to G8YU. To the OP, another deck I worked on in the past used an optical sensor to detect if the tape is playing. Essentially when the tape was playing a piece of plastic would pass through the sensor telling it the tape was still moving, when the tape came to the end, the sensor would pick up the lack of movement and stop the play mechanism. I'm not sure if the Dragon works the same way. Does it actually play properly for those 2 seconds?

[multiham]

Almost afraid to post this, but the Dragon is now working perfectly. I was showing it to a friend last week and told him it wasn't working. Put in a tape, pressed play, and it just worked!! Since then it has worked perfectly. I don't understand it, but I'm happy

[Yamaki]

Capstans dirty perhaps? Maybe it just needs a good cleaning.

But that's great that it is working!