Sticking IBM floppy disk drive

[bettablue]

I am in the process of swapping out the two full height 5.25” single sided 180K floppy disk drives in favor of twin full height 360K double sided floppy drives. However, after removing a diskette from one one of the drives that is currently installed in an IBM 5150, I can’t insert any floppy disk because the internal drive is stuck in a locked position and cannot be released so it won’t allow any diskette to be inserted so it can either boot up, or read what is written or load any programs.

I currently own two IBM computers, a 5150 with only one floppy drive, and a 5160 with a single floppy drive. So to put two 360K double sided into my TRS-80 Model 4, I’m forced to remove the floppy drives from both of .my spare IBM 5150, and 5160 machines. That leaves my spare IBM machines with no 5.25” floppy disks. But my TRS-80 will have two internal drives.

That leaves me with only one working 5.25” floppy disk, and one malfunctioning floppy drive I described earlier. So that is where I am. I need one more floppy drive to replace the bad one. Then i’ll have two floppy disk drives installed into my TRS-80 Model 4. Later on, I’ll purchase another pair of full height 360K double sided floppy disk drives. Sadly, there is only one floppy drive installed in each of my 5150, and 5160 computers. When I’m done, my TRS-80 will be complete with two double sided 360K floppy drives.

Upgrading my TRS-80 is turning out to be a bigger job than I first thought.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Are these the Tandon TM-100 drives? If so, one thing that often happens is that the plastic part of the latch that retains the latch guide pin breaks. I've had to fab replacements out of brass for that one.