Auto off s reel lock red flash

Commonly to all these older units and I have seen a lot of them, there are mechanical linkages that are not covered inn the owners manual as they were moving in the short term. Now after a lot of years the grease has turned to a glue or will be very thick. The mechanical links must be taken apart and regreased- I have done many but the problem is that it can take a lot of time to do this. Get a tube of Lubriplate from a Hardware store and go in and see where things do not move and that will be where the cleaning and grease will once put in make the deck like new.

The Capstan motor is just for the play speed regulation so it has nothing to do with the reel motors. You can have an open safety microswitch or maybe a bad relay. It is really hard to say without looking at the unit but I am sure it is repairable. Is the right dummy plug put in the back? This can stop all transport functions if it is out.

When's the last time it was cleaned? It surely needs it now.

Never touch the any part of the transport that directly contacts the tape with bear fingers.

This sounds like a failure of the take-up (left) reel to take up slack as it's fed in by the capstan.

You can probably trust the machine to fast forward or rewind a tape to test the ability of the reels to manage slack since either action only requires one reel to pull while the other just coasts. Failure would look like stationary tape that eventually would time out and reset the command.

If it won't do fast transport motions that eliminates the capstan/pinch roller.

If it CAN FF and REW then the capstan, pinch roller, heads or something is probably glommed up with sticky tape oxide, which brings us back to the first question.

It's not seeing the takeup reel turning.
Either the takeup reel isn't turning or the takeup reel sensor has malfunctioned.
Check the belt to the takeup reel by doing a fast forward.
Will it fast forward? and is the takeup reel spinning during playback?

The problem is caused by the idler assembly which controls play, record, rewind, and fast forward. If the take up reel stops, the vcr senses a problem and will stop the tape. The only other thing it can be is the drive belt, sometimes it will stretch and fall off or break. I suggest a tv technician or somebody that knows their way around a machine.

The take-up reel is dragging or the belt is stretched or broken. No surprise on a deck this old. Try Fast Forward. Try Rewind. Same result?

If it still doesn't work, and it happens with only one cassette, rap the cassette's flat side against a solid flat surface to loosen it. Try again.

If you're really an old-school deck user you probably know how to cheat the transport with no tape resent to make the capstans engage for cleaning. Try that. The two reels should spin opposite as if maintaining tension. If the right one is stationary or lethargic (try to feel how strong it pulls compared to the left one), there's a loose or broken belt.

Next step. Get out the can opener, go inside and see what's wrong. Good luck.

Hi, you can check both the motor and the rubber the makes the motor move. you will need to change one of two.

brakes need adjusting on the reel hubs

Hi I'm not familiar with your particular model, but the auto stop problem is common and is usually the result of a slipping drive belt, or bad idler/reel drive. The auto-stop works by popping a small tooth like plastic or nylon piece attached to an arm, when you runout of tape and takeup reel pulls the tape tight. The auto-stop mech can get contaminated with dust, and not work, or the reel for some reason does not pull the tape tight enough to fully engage that piece and the result is a ticking sound. As the deck now has your tape, I suspect the main drive belt is broken or probably slipping, and all will work fine if it is replaced. Although changing the belt is not difficult, you should probably take it to a repair shop, as getting the right size is important, and the deck may have to be dismantled to change it. Hope this helps, good luck!