When I received delivery of the BBC B Micro I also received a single floppy drive for the computer. It is a Watford drive with a switchable 40/80 track option. The drive was dirty with a label fixed to the top of the drive.

On the bottom of the drive, one of the rubber feet was missing, so this will need to be replaced. It will be better to replace all four feet at the same time.

One problem with the drive that was initially identified was the leaver for the drive door was very loose.

Here we show the upper and lower slack that is on the drive door leaver.

I was hoping that this would be a quick fix, as I found it difficult to get  parts for 5.25″ floppy drives. After removing the screw that hold the lever on the shaft, it was very clear what the problem was, old age and years of use had taken its toll this plastic part.

As the lever was made of ABS plastic, I was hopeful that a plastic glue would help repair the leaver until I can add some pin’s into the plastic to add some strength.

Here we see the leaver repaired with the two locating plastic tags. All that next to do, is to fit a couple of metal pins to provide some additional support.

After looking inside the drive, it all looks in good order and more importantly it is all clean. A quick clean of the drive mechanics and lubrication of the moving parts was all that was needed.

The dive was re-assembled and is ready for testing.