I found this boombox on Facebook market with the description that the cassette deck would not work. I decided to buy it and try to repair it.
I assumed the issue would be a bad belt or two in the cassette mechanism and once I took the unit apart, I discovered that was indeed the case. This model only uses one belt for all three functions: playback, rewind and fast forward. Cleaning the old melted belt off of the wheels took much longer than installing a new one.
While I had the unit open, I also cleaned the contacts for the volume control and balance switches.
The tuner uses a piece of plastic with teeth on the bottom that is moved by two wheels. The plastic was no longer aligned properly which I was able to fix as well. Realigning this piece was actually harder than installing the new cassette belt.
Overall the unit is back to functioning properly and sounding as well as intended.
Part of me feels silly for taking the time to repair a mostly plastic boombox from the 1980s like this. It’s not as if it is worth a lot of money. I could probably be using the time to repair something more valuable instead.
But then I remind myself that I enjoyed the challenge of bringing the deck back to life and I was able to start and finish the repair while watching the Lakers Heat NBA finals game. I didn’t spend days on the project, just a couple of hours.
Also, I’m not the only one who has restored a boombox like this. Here is a video from someone who restored a model very similar to mine:
Aaron Hartley 
Hello,
I actually bought one of these from an estate sale for 5 bucks. While it probably does need restoration, there are only a few main problems. The cassette player and radio mostly work, but the tape speed(tape sounds out of speed, my least concern tbh) and autostop system dont seem to work. Not to mention, the left speaker doesnt work, and the volume control is a little static-y. I’m wondering what steps I need to take to fix it, could you give me some advice?
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Take it apart and spray the volume control with Deoxit. That should help with the volume issues.
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Hi there. Do you have any advice on cleaning off the melted belt? I just picked one up, and the rubber is quite a mess inside. Also, what would you recommend for cleaning the contacts? Thanks for the helpful article!
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I use A LOT of q-tips with isopropyl alcohol. It takes forever to clean it all off so don’t get discouraged! I use Deoxit spray (you can find on Amazon) for cleaning contacts!
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I recently bought one of these and the cassette deck did not work as well. I took it apart and assumed it was the belt, but the belt was intact. The deck does nothing when I push play,rewind,etc. do you have a guess as to what could possibly be the next step? It makes no sounds when play is pushed.
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Hmmm. Try looking on YouTube to see if anyone has repaired one with these symptoms. I haven’t had it happen yet sorry.
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