Cleaning cassette decks - Need some advice on cleaning a Nakamichi

[mellowtooth]

so I was recently gifted a Nakamichi BX300 for Christmas, and I'm thinking I should clean it out before sticking any brand new tapes in it.

I've got 91% iso, and I'm on my way to pick up some precision tip Q-tips (they don't have the issue of cotton fiber coming loose during cleaning) and maybe even some rubber cleaner for the pinch rollers. I'll also probably grab some canned air to spray the inside of the deck, as it's generally pretty dusty in here.

Thing is, I've never cleaned a deck before and I'm not 100% sure on how to proceed. I've attached an image of the inside of my deck:

Now I'm not nearly experienced enough to be able to eyeball that, but it looks like the capstans and head could certainly use a scrubbing - pinch rollers don't look awful, but they could also benefit from a clean.

My pinch rollers don't budge when I plug the unit in or hit play without a tape in, so I'm not sure how to clean the full surface of the roller.

Any tips on using a bit of iso va. rubber cleaner for the pinch rollers? And besides that, is it pretty much just gently cotton swab the capstans and head? and those plastic guiding roller things on the top?

[andy.]

I don't know how to clean the actual player. The only thing I have is a head cleaner tape that I let play through a few times that's suppose to help.

[dkrtz]

Head cleaner tapes aren't the most reliable in all decks if I'm not mistaken. Mellow, you seem to have a pretty good understanding of what to do. use those fancy q-tips and give 'er a gentle scrubdown and you'll be a-ok 

[donlombardo]

Except for the rubber cleaner, which I was to cheap to invest in, that is exactly what I did. Also, i used regular q-tips. Canned air have done some miracles on my players, since it has a cooling effect as well.