This Commodore 1541 hides a terrible secret.

Short? Wait where? O.L is open. I do wonder what repair methods we may be able to devise nowadays. You can SLA print precision parts and we can build precision coil winding machines at home. I do have a drive somewhere in a box stored under low humidity that may potentially be affected, i should check it out.

it is not shorted but open. They can be "repared" if one of the two coils is working you can bridge the other coil with a resistor. It will be slower, but will work.

I worked for Mitsubishi electronics from 84 to 90, 8", 5.25" and 3.5" floppy drives, I was the resident expert at perfect radial and azimuth alignment that had tight screws, as shipping in trucks are bumpy and misaligns heads with not so tight screws. The good ol Brikon FDD tester/exerciser, I knew that equipment like the back of my hand. Good ol memories.

My 1541-II drives with Chinon mechanisms are still going strong 30 years later. I was aware of the Newtronics issues, but did not know that the Mark IIs had a direct correlation between the external case design and the internal mechanism. That is a brilliant tip for buyers! -- JC

I never worked with Commodere drives but back in the days I repaired lots of FDDs. You can use any head coil from drive with similar geometry. The hardest part is to glue it properly. After you'll need a special disk where zeros are written on track 0 and 1 on other track according to your geometry. Then you have to position head on each track with low level commands and control the alignment with oscilloscope connected to head preamp.

Wow! I didn't realize that someone actually read my blog posts from 2017! btw. I still didn't say the last word on this topic and want to sort this case out. I am slowly gathering knowledge ... like really slowly as I am kinda overwhelmed by other projects lol. As usual, this was an EXCELLENT VIDEO!

Wow, the prices went up insane! In Germany you can buy 1541 drives for 30-50 Bucks in working condition.

There is an "open" on pin 1 of the bad drive, not a "short". The DMM reads infinite ohms on the pin 1 measurements. Pin 1 = OPEN.

I literally just purchased a 1541 MKII 2 days ago, thankfully the condition of the drive was stated and it was fully working, serviced and head aligned and for 67.00UK ie a really good price. But when I heard you say that they can just go with fault my heart sank, BUT when I looked at the drive it had the recessed lever, cue a big smile. I was lucky, I got a proper retro commodore seller and the product was fully documented before sale. As you say, the little games that some sellers use, ie the powers on or untested is just annoying and usually deliberate, trying to get money for their old dead crap......Thanks Matt, great short video..

That's one more reason to go for a 1571 instead. If the drive mechanism ever breaks, you can rip one out of a random PC and be on your way. Or even convert it into a poor man's 1581 if you want.

Never heard about the bad drive head issue before. Thank you for making the video.

I had the 1541-C model I believe. I also bought the C-64-C with cash from my part time job. Somewhere around $400 I think. I remember playing a ton of Ultima IV.

This is great info! Thanks for sharing. I'm an OG 64 guy who only had the older Alps mechanisms... I did have my days of fighting alignment issues, and had to teach myself how to re-align them. Now I know that if I ever do want to recreate my original setup I should beware the caveats with the later models even more. Thanks again.

We could afford a C64 in the 80's but never a diskette drive. Some of my friends had one but I kept using tapes till the end. It felt like being a secondary citizen of the C64 universe. Even today when I see a 1541 I feel the same desire to finally have one.

The drive head is measuring open, not short.

Thanks for the great tips! Been thinking of picking up a 1541, since I always like to have a drive available to read physical media "just in case" and/or to be able to make physical media for friends/people in need. I knew there were some "bad" 1541s out there, but didn't really know the details. Until now. :)

So... what about those crazy people that just want the 1541 case? I'll give you $20 for your broken drive! 😁

Some 23 years ago a friend and I experimented with two 1541's with remarkably different circuit boards, and slightly different mechanisms, with the head and track motor wires coming from different spots but able to reach. We managed to get the mechanism from one (not sure which) to work fully with the other boards, wires carefully routed to avoid snagging. I think both had the "flap" on the front though, so these likely were two revisions of MK1. One appeared completely dead towards the C64, the other had some mechanical issue... it is likely that both were repairable as is, but we managed to Frankenstein one working drive from two non-working ones and we were happy with the result then.

Can't wait for "this 1976 vintage 8 track tape player will DESTROY your 8 track tapes!!!"

Thanks for the informative video! I recall wishing my original 1541 had the lever operated mechanism. I thought the push down ALPS 1541 drive lever was weird and clunky. Some friends had the Newtronics version and they felt a lot nicer to use... but here we are 40 years later and my 1541 is still going strong! Both of my 1541-II drives are Chinon based and work perfectly!