RCA VDT-350 How to adjust tracking?

[Ed in Tx]

You need to find a proper replacement tension band. Too critical for correct performance. As far as looking at the switching point down just above the vertical sync and adjusting it that way, that would depend on how accurate the dihedral alignment of the video heads was on both the machine the tape was recorded on and the machine playing back. That is how close to a perfect 180° opposite they are on the drum to each other. A certain amount of tolerance was always "normal" and a little bit of difference where the switching point occurs was typical, but sometimes that alignment could be "off" enough to cause video "flagging" on a different machine playing back. Same tape would play fine on the machine it was recorded on. So do you by chance have a tape that was originally recorded on that VCR?