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Home Forums 68kMLA 400k floppy drive woes — #5
Post #5 by trag
Source Forum68kMLA
CategoryTroubleshooting
Post DateTue, 4 Aug 2009 - 15:54
Original URLhttps://68kmla.org/bb/threads/400k-floppy-drive-woes.18146/
Post
I have done three of these 400K drives that were stuck; all of them it was the eject lever mechanisms that were so plugged with old grease they would not move. It took several days of allowing new lubricant to penetrate the old grease and wiping the excess away before they would properly function.
Yes, the lubricant Apple used turns to glue after a time. Back around '95 I had two 400K drive mechanisms new in the box as service parts, which I bought at UTexas's surplus auction. They were both glued stuck. And that was 14 years ago for drives that were never used.

IIRC, I used a cotton swab with alcohol to remove the old lubricant. Most of the relevant bits are on the sides of the drive where you can easily reach them. I didn't need to do any cleaning on the interior. Then I used a bit of lithium grease and one worked fine. The other one, I had sold before I realized they had this problem, and the buyer had the same issue. But he cleaned his up too and it worked as well. They were still sealed in the original packaging.

mp.ls