Problems with a Pioneer CT-F1250 cassette deck

From: Mike Lee (leemichaelb_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/28/04 

Date: 28 Jun 2004 11:06:30 -0700

Hello all,
I recently rescued an old and beautiful Pioneer CT-F1250 cassette
deck from a friend's trash heap! It was in great shape but
appears to need some work to bring it back up to spec again.
Most seriously, there is a large power resistor (7W, 12ohms) on
a vertical board that overheats (to the point of smoking!). I believe
this may be related to the quartz lock circuitry, because it only
happens during playback and record, and the circuit board has
one section that is labelled "pulse count". The second
issue that it seems to have is that the tape calibration doesn't
seem very stable -- the ideal setting for each knob
(bias/level/eq) seems to fluctuate over time, even over the course
of a calibration run.

Can anyone offer any hints and tips in troublehsooting and repairing
one of these grand decks? Or possibly someone willing to share a copy of
the service manual? It is in fantastic shape and I'd hate to
see it go to waste!

Thanks in advance,
Mike