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Does the layout above look familiar? Aiwa only made two Beta models and both had tape mechanisms that looked like they were made by Sony. Perhaps Sony having a controlling interest in Aiwa may of had an influence. During refurbishing the tape path components would be handled in these units as already discussed, but there are some minor differences and this is what we are going to concentrate on here. If you look closely at the photo above you can see some of these, the most notable being the reel table design. Click on the picture. Aiwa used the familiar pendulum to swing between the reels to drive them, but rather than employ any kind of compound reels they decided to control all the various torque and speed requirements with the reel motor electronics. This allowed them to use simple solid reels and a simple gear drive mechanism. It works well and affords very smooth controlled handling of the tape throughout the various modes. The brakes you see here are to prevent accidental movement at rest and during mode changes. Click on the picture and you can see the brakes better. Notice there are four of them (two can just barely be seen in the photo). The two up towards the top only function to insure that the pendulum gear (yellow) fully engages the reels on either side. In every refurbish all four brakes must are replaced because they are rubber and therefor deteriorate over time. They are special because of their oval shape. Every Aiwa that I have refurbish has had to have the drive gear replaced because it cracks. Both the rubber brakes and the gears are no longer available as parts but fortunately I have worked out replacements for each. Another common correction made to most units is reinforcing the metal guide pins that are molded into the cassette receiving tray of the loader (not shown). The plastic they are molded in cracks and the pins fall out. AIWA units used no rubber belts and also didn't thread until play or record was requested. This gave them the ability to rewind and fast forward the tape with it still inside the cassette.
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