sticky Sony 3.5" drive in HP disk drives

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Mon Oct 20 10:32:28 2003

Frank,

   You should have found this covered in the archives. I've posted it
numerous times before. All the HP double sided floppy drives (9133, 9122,
IPC drives, etc) have this problem. The grease used on them dries up and
makes the mechanism stick. If you're not carefull the disk will catch on
the upper head and tear it off completely or at least damage the R/W head's
mount spring and throw it out of alignment. Be VERY careful inserting or
removing a disk from one of these drives. To fix the drive, remove it from
the chassis, remove it's cover and clean off the old grease using alcohol
or another solvent. I have used spray carburator cleaner but I'm leary of
it since it blasts stuff all over the place and I think it has enough
pressure that it could tear a R/W head off or damage it's mounting spring.
I usually just use alcohol and pour it over the sides of the drive and then
use lint free towels and Q-tips to clean the grease off. Repeat several
times to get all the old grease off. I try to avoid getting the alcohol
and/or old grease in the rest of the drive especially the heads. Once you
get the old grease off the mechanism should work pretty freely. I then
relube it sparingly with a good quality gun grease. Gun grease is usually a
high quality grease that won't gum up with age. I also clean the R/W heads
while I have it apart. Replace the cover, reinstall the drive and it should
work fine.

    Joe


At 06:18 AM 10/20/03 -0700, you wrote:
>Found in an HP 9114A. Doesn't want to accept a diskette; it doesn't
>move the diskette down when fully inserted, but pushing the eject
>button ejects the diskette. Removed the drive from the 9114A, and
>pulled its cover; its heads appear to be intact and in place. I'm
>wondering what I need to clean and re-lubricate (and how, and what
>sort of lubricant to use); I'm thinking Tony Duell has told us all
>before but doggone if I can turn it up in my searches.
>
>-Frank McConnell
>
Received on Mon Oct 20 2003 - 10:32:28 BST