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Old 09-04-2011, 01:38 AM
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Eric H Eric H is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: So. Calif
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
Both tapes and machines appear around here, but the machines don't show up anywhere near as often as the tapes.

Reelman1968, does your unit have intermitant variations in speed that are cleared up by wiggleing the tape? mine does, and it is begining to irk me. If it gets worse I think I'll try to replace my unit's belt.
Back when I had an 8-Track I found most speed fluctuations were caused by the tape cartridge, not the machine.

The Pinch roller system wasn't very precision, plastic wheels running on plastic shafts, 4-Tracks actually had a better system because the pinch roller was part of the machine and had a precision bearing.

The cure was to open the cartridge and put just a touch of Vaseline on the Pinch Roller shaft and the center post of the tape reel (a Q-Tip works great here), they worked great after that. Be very careful not to get any Vaseline on anything else though or you have bigger problems.
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