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Projector cog/belt repair help please!


Cecilia Danell

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Hi,

I was given a Sankyo P-1600 Super 8 projector off a friend. It had never been used when I got it and had been sitting in a garage for decades in its original packaging. When I first got it the lamp wouldn't light, and (as mentioned in another recent topic here) the resolution was to replace the ceramic lamp socket which had eroded, and now the lamp works.

 

Therefore, I was finally going to test it with a reel of film tonight but am having some issues:

 

The projector worked fine for threading the film and the supply reel was spinning as normal. However, once the film was on the take up reel this refused to spin automatically, resulting in me having to wind it by hand while the projector was running (in the hopes of running through the reel without having to cut it) but this only worked for a minute and then the entire film got stuck as the whole thing refused to spin and I ended up having to take off the hood, cut the film and force it out by lifting all the levers manually.

 

There is definitely something not spinning right inside and I have a suspicion that this might have to do with the rubber belt driving the wheels inside not being threaded right, but I have not been able to find any reference image of how this should look.

 

When I repaired the lamp socket I took of the rear hood on the projector and when doing so the rubber belt slipped slightly and I put it back the way I thought it had been. Then today after the film got stuck I thought that maybe this was done wrong as the rubber belt wasn't wound around the top left wheel before, so I put it there to try but the take up real still wouldn't spin. Then the projector started to make funny noises so I turned it off right away as I was afraid it might break in case something was jamming inside the machine.

 

I've attached images of the inside of the projector. Do you think the rubber belt should be threaded this way? Or could it be a cog/part acting up? The machine has no dirt and is well greased due to never having been used. The rubber in the belt seems to be in good nick, seems pretty fresh and not brittle but with normal elasticity.

 

I have a Eumig projector (in Sweden with my parents) and never had a reason to look inside it as it worked fine when I got it, that one is very easy to thread and this one also accepted the film fine until the take up real issue presented itself. I can't compare the two as I'm in Ireland.

 

I'll be running a Super 8 class next month so it's vital that I have a working projector for that, so any help would be much appreciated!! Even if someone had a picture of a similar projector motor it would be extremely helpful as I could compare the rubber belts.

 

Thanks!

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A quick google came up with this site which sells bulbs and spare parts and even has a picture of the inside of your projector showing how the belt is threaded:

https://www.van-eck.net/img/itable/images/film_148_P-1600_1447409057645.jpg

Looks like it doesn't go over the top left roller and you have it upside down on the right roller.

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Oh no... I spliced together the reel of film I'd tried yesterday, rewound it (using the projector rewind) and then played it in its entirety and it worked great.

Once it was over I proceeded to rewind the reel (stopping the projector inbetween) but the roller wouldn't spin. Tried the forward setting and that worked for a moment before that stopped spinning too. Took off the hood and looked again, and now the motor and fan are running but the cogs wont spin... Is this the end for this projector or could it be that the cogs need greasing? I'm so disappointed as I was delighted to have it working only a few minutes ago :(

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If the mechanism isn't running, and you can rotate it by hand, it's probably down to the short belt slipping. You could try cleaning the grooves on the motor and shutter spindles. Failing that there are various sellers of replacements online. Van Eyck lists them.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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Hi thanks for your advice Mark. I had a look at the projector again this evening and the cogs moved when rotating the fan by hand so they don't seem to jam at all. I then turned on the projector and it was working fine, as opposed to yesterday morning when the rollers stopped spinning. I let it run for a few minutes and it seemed fine. I therefore think it's a rubber belt issue, that it's gone slightly slack due to age which makes it unpredictable, working sometimes and not others. My first assumption was that the rubber band expanded when the projector had been running for a while due to heat expanding the material, but a bit of googling told be that rubber expands in cold, not heat (didn't know that!) so that can't be the issue, so still don't understand why it stopped spinning yesterday and now today when I turned it on it worked. However, this joy might be short lived as I don't feel as if I can trust it, if I play a film it might stop working halfway through. Therefore I just looked into buying new rubber belts online. I saw that Van Eck video services does them, so I just placed an order with them for a pair of belts for my particular projector model.

 

Fingers crossed that will be the end of it and that I'll have a working projector from now on :)

Edited by Cecilia Danell
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  • 2 weeks later...

In most cases regarding older projectors, especially any that have sat for a long time, the belts will usually need replacing. The rubber only remains supple for so many years or so many hours of use. That SANKYO is a fairly well made projector and should serve you a long time. New belts, clean the entire film path and track and film gate, and wipe the path again with either movie film cleaner with lubricant or a silicone lubricant intended for safe for plastics (spray a clean white cotton flannel cloth, allow propellant to evaporate and then wipe the film gate, pressure plate and film path. You can use a small piece and move it around using soft wooden skewers or cotton swaps. If you use the cotton swaps alone, you might end up getting small fibers in the film gate and they could show upon projection. Also, make sure your films are clean and lubricated so they will glide thru the projector smoothly; this will minimize wear and tear on the films. Best of luck.

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