XF551 drive stopped reading with AtariMax's ProSystem

[bfollowell]

I've been archiving my old disks using AtariMax's ProSystem and my old XF551 drive. Everything had been going great when the drive just stopped recognizing disk formats, even when I tried disks that I'd already read successfully.

 

I decided to disassemble the drive and clean it. I noticed something rattling around as I took the drive apart. I found a loose piece of thin metal sitting on top of the drive when I took the cover off. It looks like shielding metal. I couldn't see where it might go until I took all the shielding off. Once I did, I saw some sticky pads around the top of the read/write head mechanism that seemed to match the sticky pads on one side of the loose piece of metal, though that seems like an odd place for it. Will anyone with an XF551 please confirm that's where this goes?

 

Also, I've never really manually cleaned the read/write heads of a drive before. Back in the day I always used a cleaning disk kit. This time I plan to use a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. I just want to confirm the the white square area showing on the read/write head in the last picture, and the other above it that isn't seen, are the two areas that I need to clean.

 

Thanks.

 

[bfollowell]

I did have to go back to 2013, but I did finally find a couple of older threads confirming this shielding is for the top read/write head. I'll clean off the glue remains and super glue it back into place. Now, if anyone can just confirm where I need to clean with the alcohol and swabs, I'll get the compressed air ready and get some cleaning going and, hopefully, be back in business soon. I'll probably check the solder connections on the SIO connectors while I'm at it and have it apart.

 

Thanks!

 

If anyone comes here looking for help with a similar issue in the future, here are the two older related threads I found as well.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216223-xf551-repair-success-and-question/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/219957-xf551-part-question-help/

Edited December 31, 2018 by bfollowell

[_The Doctor__]

the head is dirty as can be, a good double sided wet dry cleaning disk will solve that easily.

The top hat should be attached in a fashion that is not flush with the plastic but slightly up (air gap) it should give a little.. double sided high temp sticky tape works fine (check an automotive store (not super thick, just enough so you have a little give and a sliver of gap.

 

You can scrub the lower head easily enough but I suggest the upper head be cleaned using the wet dry disk so you really can just use the 5 1/4 cleaning disk, they still sell em brand new for 5 1/5 up to 8 inch drives. Check auction sites...

 

I see the hat come off these days usually during or after the q tip brigade cleans the head, sometime slightly bending the heads spring plate...

you can see the spring plate now that the hat is off...

 

You may find a tweak to add slight pressure to the upper heads spring arm will help if that has happened.

 

Make sure the disintegrated foam dust and glue is cleared out from the whole drive and the disk that might have been in it...

Edited January 1, 2019 by _The Doctor__