Sony CCD-TR808 Hi8 camcorder (1993) cassette holder won't retract

[Rene Heemskerk]

Hi everyone out there, I have a little used Sony CD-TR808E Hi8 camcorder that I bought in 1993 (and several lenses for it). I recorded some 25 cassettes in the nineties that I was going to digitize on my lap top. However, this plan has been sabotaged as the camcorder won't load cassettes anymore. I took it out of storage yesterday, connected it, had it eject the cassette that was in it, put the cassette back and then the cassette lift refused to go down. Every six seconds a motor inside starts humming for some nine seconds, stops six seconds, hums nine sconds, etc. tc. But the lift won't go down. Can anyone help/advise me? Thanks in advance!

[kgallen]

Quite possibly perished load and drive belts. I can really help much more other than suggest you look for a Service Manual (Sony are generally pretty good with this) and try and figure out if your machine has any rubber belts and if you can find the spec of these if so. It’s possible you could find a seller on, say eBay, that can provide a kit of those required - although this is not fool proof depending on the knowledge and experience of the seller (wrong size belts, wrong type, missing belts).