Resurrect Mac512 400KB floppy drive?
Cleaning house and came across my original Mac 512. Hasn’t been fired up in many years, figured I’d give it a try. Good news is the electronics (boards & CRT) are working! Bad news is the floppy drive is jammed in eject position. I have an external 400KB drive, it has same issue. Took the external drive apart and can see, as reported on the web, the original lubricant for all the hinges and sliders has turned to glue. Got it kind of cleaned & loosened up, but not enough to insert/eject freely. I’m certainly willing to disassemble further and keep trying, but also wondering if perhaps anyones knows of a good refurb service for my drives or source for refurbed drives? Thanks!
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Floppy wouldn’t insert with any reasonable force in either (internal, external) drive. The external drive I took apart revealed the lubricant/glue locked it up solid. Got the easily accessible in/out sliders freed, but the carriage up/down motion (head unload/load) still too bound up, have to disassemble further (remove electronics PCB). There are videos…
https://www.google.com/search?client=saf...
Hoping I can get at least one of the drives to work (or otherwise procure a working one). If not, might give this gadget a try…
http://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/
Thanks for your answer. Sorry I’m not interested in selling, at least for now, want to get it running. Can’t say when as I’m not in a rush, but I will post here when there’s an update, hopefully a happy Mac screen shot!
Tom 의
Glad to report my 1984 Mac512 is working! As for fixing the floppy drive, lubing the 'in/out' sliders is easy but after they're loosened you'll find the 'up/down' motion is still impaired. The linkage that needs to be lubed is kind of buried, but can be accessed from the rear of the drive with a precise/syringe applicator. Turns out there's an optical sensor in the immediate vicinity, if it's contaminated the drive will seek continuously after power on (google 'floppy-drive-repeating-click-of-death'). Just get in there and clean the sensor, I used some gauze wrapped around a piece of old credit card. Cracking the case was pretty easy, I used a plastic automotive trim removal tool. The hardest part was trying to unplug the power supply cable to the logic board. It's a long connector with a full-length locking jaw and no room to grab. Ended up using a gasket/o-ring removal pick from the garage. After that the logic board slides right out and the drive easily removed.
Tom 의