68kMLA Classic Interface

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400k External Drive Felt Pad? Part

Posted by: thegarse on 2015-12-17 15:45:13 I picked up a 400k External Drive. In short, got it re-lubed and noticed one tiny detail missing. The felt pressure pad (opposite side of the read/write head) is missing. I've read that some people made their own but I'd like to find a replacement if possible. Attached is a pic I found online.  (Edit: sp)

Posted by: Elfen on 2015-12-17 16:14:18 Like with many other single sided disk drives, when the felt pad gets missing, I would find an old cassette tape and remove the felt pad from the center Read/Write head; it is on a brass bracket, so with a pliers I would pull it the bracket with the felt pad on it. Then I would carefully remove the felt pad from the bracket and put it on the spot where is belongs on the drive. The trick was getting the right glue to use to stick the pad in place. I saved many old single sided drives this way.

Posted by: fri0701 on 2015-12-17 16:49:44 What I've done in the past is to take a slider pad for the bottom of chair legs (so the chairs don't scratch the floor), shave it down to about half its thickness and to the size of the old pad, and glue it to the stem. It's probably not the best way to fix it (the cassette pad idea sounds best), but it's cheap, quick, and makes the drive work like new again, in my experience.

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