V-31
Toshiba 1983
Betamax V-31



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Technical

No picture

This VCR suffered from bad head wear. If you are getting a distorted picture then be sure to check the head.

Failure to load a tape

This is often caused by failure of the cassette carriage.

No reel rotation

This is a very common problem which plagues all Sanyo machines and can have several causes. The first thing which fails is usually the reel idler assembly. Replacement units are readily available and can be fitted easily after removal of the cassette carriage. Next thing to check is the drive belt connecting the motor to the idler assembly. Finally suspect failure of the motor itself. It can also be caused failure of capacitors in the servo circuit.

Belts

These machines develop rubber belt and drive wheel wear and ageing issues similar to the Sanyo models and the rubber stretches, goes hard or cracks causing drive, tape load/unload and control issues. They can usually be restored to service with a new belt kit and a good head clean.

Playback interference from the reel drive motor

Another common issue on these machines is a worn or faulty reel motor. The motor starts to generate small arcs internally which are picked up by the sensitive video head amplifier circuits via the power supply. These are seen as random coloured dashes on the playback video. Adding extra capacitors and high current (low resistance) inline ferrite beads inline with the motor supply wires can partly reduce the problem but replacement with a new motor if you can get one is the best fix.


Quick fault guide

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FaultSolution
No power - No clockF801 open circuit. Replace with 630mA Slow blow fuse.
New headsThe replacement heads for the V-31/V-33 models do not self align like the later Sony models. As a result, it is neccessary to use the proper eccentricity gauge to centre them correctly.
Drop out compensator not functioning. Failure of delay line X101Using an oscilloscope check the video waveform appearing at the input to the delay line X101 and then check that you see a waveform at about half that amplitude at the output. If there is no output waveform then replace the delay line.