Well it's about time someone wrote a guide on how to repair the Famicom Disk Systems in english, I know I could have done with a guide when I got my first non-working system. Anyway this guide is for replacing the band or belt as some people call it which is almost always the cause of a non-working systems. This guide is for the stand alone version rather than the Twin Famicom but since they use the same drive it can be used for that as well.

I am NOT RESPONSABLE for any damage you do to yourself or Famicom Disk System. If you are worried about opening your FDS I suggest you don't as you could end up damaging the system beyond repair. Saying that though as Nintendo of Japan no longer offers to repair them you haven't got much choice.

Stuff you need:
1. A philips screw driver (if you don't know what that is leave now and never return).
2. A flat head screw driver, knife or something similar.
3. A replacement rubber band it must be of correct size to work, try eBay.
4. A lot of patients, getting the band in place without damaging it can take a while.

STEP 1

First turn the disk system over and remove the six screws holding the case together.

STEP 2

Now turn the system over and remove the top cover, at the back of the system there is a rectangle tray. This is being held down by two screws under where the batteries go remove these two screws and move the tray. Now you should be at the stage in the picture above, take your thumb and index finger and slowly move the plug in the back of the disk drive from side to side. If you are having trouble removing the cable you can remove the four screws holding the drive to the base of the case and move the drive forward a little.

STEP 3

If you didn't remove the four screws holding the disk drive to the base in the step 2 do that now. When removing the disk drive don't worry about the front plastic bar, that just slots out. Once the drive is out look for the two wires which are circled in the picture above. Each wire has a bit of metal holding it in place this metal need to be bent using a flat head screw driver or something similar so the wires can move. This is very important if you do not do this the wires could end up breaking off in step 5, for close up pictures check here and here.

STEP 4

Turn the disk drive over and remove the three screws shown in the picture above ignore the top left one for now.

STEP 5

Now the base is removed you can see the band (belt) that is causing the problem. In this case it hasn't broken but it has stretched so it will still need to be replaced. Remove the four screws shown in the picture above and carefully lift the circuit board. Now under the circuit is where the gray wire is connected with a four pin connector you can either leave this connected or try and remove it. I have found trying to remove it is more trouble than it's worth and since the band can be replaced without removing it I chose to leave it. However if you do unplug it you have more space to play with so I'll leave this decision up to you.

STEP 6

Remove the three screws shown above then turn the metal triangle clock wise and carefully lift it out under the circuit board as shown here.

STEP 7

Now the metal triangle is out the way you can work out how you are going to attach the band. Because the band goes between one of the legs on the metal triangle (the one with two screw holes) you cannot attach the band then the triangle you have to do it all at once. This is the tricky part what I did was got the band put it under the correct leg shown here. Then put the triangle back in the top right corner and slowly put it back into position. Now holding it up so it doesn't slot into place carefully move the band so it goes around the white circular cog shown above. Once the band is around the bottom half of the cog carefully stretch the band to the top left hand corner around the motor. Check the bands lined up then slot the triangle back into place.

STEP 8

Now the band is in place the circuit board needs to be put back into place if you find it wont check the other side there is a bar that slides up and down this is used to read the disks. If you move this up you should see that the black plastic bar from the circuit board was getting caught on it. Now all that is left to do is screw everything back together and attaching the disk drive back to the rest of the system. Before you put the case together you may want to test it first as there are some reports of having to tweak the motor a little to get it working. If it still does not work move on to step 9.

STEP 9

This is the final step and is not required if the system works after step 8. I have not had to do this step myself as the systems have worked after replacing the band. If there is still a problem it could be unrelated to the band but there is one more thing to try before looking for faults else where. Because you can no longer get bands from Nintendo there is no way to guarantee the one you have is exactly the same size as the original. Luckily the motor usually has a variable resistor (Potentiometer) for adjusting the voltage (speed). To adjust it you will need a very small flat head screw driver, adjust it very slightly then try to load a disk. Keep adjusting the motor and loading a disk until you get a result. If you still cannot get the system to work make sure you are using an original and known good disk to test the system. Many pirate disks are very temperamental, still not working? you're on your own. :)