The second most popular question asked of me is:- 'Where does this little (10mm) pin come from -- it fell out when I was replacing the belt in my disc drive!' or 'My wife found this whilst vacuuming the floor, does it come from my disc drive?' With well over 400 drive repairs to my name- Been there, done it and got the tee-shirt - so no ridicule from me. As there are at least twelve different makes/models of 3 inch drive (this includes both the 180K and the 720K versions) fitted to the Amstrad/Spectrum machines (three of these do not have this pin) I can only offer a general guide as to where this pin goes but this will be enough to get everyone's drive up and running. Firstly remove the drive from your machine, take it out of it's cage (if in one) then pull out all the small plugs so as to release the printed circuit board, turn the drive so as the printed circuit board is upwards, then unscrew the two or three small bolts holding it down. Now turn the drive so that the ribbon cable/power connectors are facing you and lift up the board and look to the far left hand side, in front of the brass motor pulley, and in a recess you will see a hole - the pin drops into here and no, it is not fixed in anyway. All that is now needed is to re-assemble but remembering to keep the drive with the printed circuit board upwards until you have replaced it's small retaining bolts. I have now produced a guide to fitting a belt into the 3 inch disc drive but if I have not made myself clear there are a number of alternative, all excellent, reference points to go to for this information, try Ron ('no we are not related') King's or the Joyce Computer Club's Web Sites (both available via my Links Page) or the British Amstrad PCW Club's Winter 1999/2000 issue (No.24) of 'THE DISC DRIVE' to name just a few.
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