RA81 spin-up probs

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Sat Jan 10 16:50:26 2004

> One quick question. Was the positioner locked before you moved the
> drives, and have you unlocked it? There's a white lever on top of the HDA
> at the front (in front of the R/W PCB). If you moved the drive without
> locking it, you may well now be looking for a new HDA :-(

At least in the last couple of years they've been moved safely with the
lever in the locked position and the belt tensioner released, so that
*should* be ok. Of course, I don't know the history of the drives prior
to that. But at least one of them hasn't been moved since it was last
successfully run at the current site; it just gave this fault today when
we tried to power it up.

Whether the other unknown unit has more serious problems or not I won't
find out until later. Half the cables were unplugged inside suggesting
that *someone* had been monkeying around with it at some point.

Curious how they both give the same fault though.

I was doing a bit of googling and it seems like the motor start
capacitor and the HDA bearings (eek!) are possible culprits on units
that don't see a lot of use for an extended period of time.

Anyone know the specs of the motor run caps? If so I may have a suitable
one here that I can take with me next weekend and save some messing
around trying to find one on the day.

Anyone know if the bearings on these units at all servicable? I'd expect
not, but I suppose it's possible given their age and serviceability.

cheers

Jules
Received on Sat Jan 10 2004 - 16:50:26 GMT