Last days a non working FC455 tape deck popped up in the bay for about 20 Euros. Since it is quite hard to get a SER1 tape drive it was a good chance to get some spare parts like capstan wheels for my broken unit.
The SER1 release in the CD555 is the most advanced of this series therefore a 1:1 replacement does not exists. All other releases were feature and cost reduced. As far as my research had shown there is one release without auto-reverse and music search available. The FC455 is an auto-reverse deck with auto stop/turn and except of the coil and levels for music search identical with the CD555. Means we can get a lot of gears, levers, motors and sensors out of this item.
As mentioned the FC455 misses the coil for the while lever which keeps the servo on a half position to the tape to be able to conduct a fast forward/rewind whilst listening to the tape. Along with the missing music search it is not possible to program the tape deck for any playback.
The record lever is a adventures construction with a lot of levers to the main board. Worth to mention the FC455 offers Dolby B and C whilst the CD555 only offers Dolby B.
The main gear was not only broken it got pulverised and only minor parts spread through the device. No surprise considering its age. I have no intentions to repair the FC455 just use parts of it for the more “important” device.
