Panasonic RE-8860

I saw this on an online auction and in a moment of weekness I said "Why not?" After all, it's a quadraphonic unit and who can have too many of those? And who doesn't like joystick balance control that looks like a radar screen?

After it arrived I tried it out and it worked. It has AM/FM and built-in amps so it run directly to speakers. The primary issue is that the playback is a bit fast. I tested it with my calibration tape and, sure enough, it needs to be adjusted. Long story shortened, I pulled the motor and tried to find access to the governor like I did on my Realistic TR-801. Like the other one the motor is encased in two metal enclosures. At first I couldn't find the the access post under the inner case because it was covered by a label. I peeled it away but there was no way I could remount the motor without putting it back in the outer case which did not have an access port. Simple enough: drill a hole in the outer case.

Before I could get to the next step on this project I got busy with something else. By the time I got back to it and hooked up the motor I discovered that it was turning backwards. What the....? I don't remember reversing the wiring but that seems to be the problem. As of this writing, that's where it is but it is the next thing to clean up off my workbench.

Update - December 2021

I finally got back to this unit and got it working. I reverse the motor leads so it turns in the proper directions. I sure don't remember messing those up but, who knows? I'll blame it on a "senior moment." Next I created an opening in the motor case so that I could get to the governor adjustment when the motor was installing in the chassis. Once I did that, it only took a few minutes of trial and error to get my test tape to play at 440hz. I had to fiddle with the adjustment of the track changer switch but once that was done I buttoned things up.


Updated photos - December 2021


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Created December 2020.

Updated December 2021.

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