u/eggshape28

So I recently got this deck working from a dead malfunctioning donor SL-S606. Took the basket and the gears for the take up spools. It worked on the first try before i put it back together, then it started doing that all of a sudden. Seeking in reverse doesn't work, but seeking forward works. Rewind and ffwd is fine without seeking but when in play mode the capstan motor which is connected by a cogged belt to the reels has inconsistent speed (the belt is fine) but i can see the motor physically stalling or slowing down sometimes. Already replaced the servo caps (you can see I also ripped the pads on one of the caps so i had to solder to the next points) also cleaned and lubed the capstan motor itself and the reels (i can literally turn the reels when spinning the capstan shaft). Could it be failing FG caps? Should i replace those next?

So got this SL-HF870D for about $30. It initially was broken because someone plugged it into 220V which blew the fuse and a capacitor which I easily replaced. Initially it didn't display anything so immediately i cleaned the video heads and the audio heads and it finally showed something. Though I'm worried about the lines, did i accidentally break the heads? Or is that normal for an old tape? The other tape I do have the bottom line though still has those "lines". But then when I stop the tape, sometimes instead of just static i get kind of like a weird "revving" sound. It stops when it plays a tape however.

Here's comparison audio with footage from the clone itself using Emerald Hill Zone as the track. I directly recorded the Model 1 and Model 2 clone using my Yamaha PSR-E473 (yep quite unusual) and directly fed it to the usb. Then i just overlaid the audio to the footage. Besides the slightly different bass profiles when listening on the pc I cant tell, especially on the Wega itself. Listened to direct audio recordings of real model 2s, and well I prefer both my real model 1 and the clone oddly lol.

So I'm new to the subreddit, and here's both my Mega Drives, A 1989 VA1 Model 1 which i recently acquired and a "Model 2" which is actually a clone that's posing as a PAL asia console, and was my uncles original Mega Drive 2 from the 90s. Up until recently where the cheap caps finally drifted that the PSG sounds went missing and the fake controllers died (replaced with a real SJ-6000), me and my uncle thought this was actually a real Model 2 until i opened it up and told him it wasn't, well frankly it's quite convincing. There's absolutely no signs of the outer shell being fake since all the text is well printed and actually quite resilient. He told me it came in the official "colorful" box unlike most old clones. I only found out when i opened it up to see no Sega branded things inside at all, but was so confused because it had a real MC68000, Z80 (though Sharp not Zilog), and NEC chips. Also noticed the lack of rubber feet on the bottom, however even though it poses as a pal console, it is actually NTSC inside, being closer to an actual HAA-2502, but the real kicker was it's not even relatively close to a model 2 at all, inside, the cloners actually used the model 1 architecture and i found this out when the power brick showed the pal asia brick specs, but the brick itself had a mold it was negative center like the model 1, and after recapping to get PSG back I compared the sound by recording both the consoles directly. I could not for the life of me tell the difference. Gameplay wise it's also exactly the same. I wonder if this clone can actually handle a real sega cd or 32x, now i need to get my hands on one!