If not, anything goes–you may need to pry, drill, or saw the cartridge in order to get it open.The 8 Track technology was fraught with problems, including machines eating tapes, and cartridges with tape coming apart, usually at the metal strip, as the OP experienced. If you are very lucky, there will be some type of attachment that you can recognize. As a general tip, look around under the label. There are so many different types of cartridge locking systems that it is difficult to give much general advice on how to open 8-track cartridges. The one thing which is usually unavoidable, though, is opening the cartridge in order to find both ends of the tape. It may be possible to improvise your own foil strips, I will start experimenting as soon as my supply runs out. Until recently, it was still available from Radio Shack. You can replace the metal foil sensing strip yourself–that is, you can if you can find new foil. This is usually what has happened when your tape runs through a program and then suddenly stops without changing to the next program. You can also purchase 8-track pads from Kate’s 8-Track Shack.Įight-track tapes are prone to breaking at the splice. When this occurs, a simple fix is buying foam weather-stripping and cutting it to size. Type 2 pads are prone to becoming gummy and losing their “springy” quality. The solution is simple–cut more little squares of felt and glue them in. With Type 1 pads, commonly the felt squares become unglued and lost over time. Pressure pad breakdown causes improper tape contact with the playback head which leads to erratic sound fadeout. Type 2 pads are a strip of foam rubber, typically covered by a thin piece of cellophane across the top.Įach of these types of pads is associated with a particular type of breakdown, although the result is frequently the same.Type 1 pads consist of a bent sheet metal strip with little felt squares glued to its ends).There are two different types of pressure pads which are commonly found in 8-track cartridges: In order to loosen up the roller so that it moves more freely, the “Realistic 8-Track Cartridge Repair Manual” suggests that you should open the cartridge and remove the roller, lightly sand the roller shaft with fine sandpaper, and then put it back on the shaft. It has been suggested in the pages of 8-Track Mind that accordianed tape can be carefully ironed straight with a not-very-hot iron, when the tape is protected on both sides by cloth or paper. This is often caused by another pinch roller problem–the roller’s failure to turn properly, which in turn causes the tape to back up against it as the capstan spins. When a tape has been played repeatedly, the lubricant from the underside of the tape rubs off on the roller, making it even more slippery.Īnother extremely common problem is that of “accordianed” tape. A plastic pinch roller simply cannot grip tape and keep it on its path the way a rubber roller can. There is no question, however, that tape slipping sideways on a plastic pinch roller can greatly exacerbate the problem. The underlying problem is often a misaligned playback head (more on that later) or, worse yet, a misaligned recording head on the machine which created the tape (nothing much can be done about that). The tracks are so thin and are so close together that the slightest incorrect contact between tape and playing head causes this. One of the very most common difficulties which 8-trackers encounter is crosstalk, or sound bleeding between programs. Plastic pinch rollers can cause quite different but equally troubling problems. This discussion of “bad” rubber versus “good” plastic rollers brings up an interesting point. Most serious trackers have a number of extra cartridges around to use for parts. It is entirely possible to replace bad rollers with good ones, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to open the cartridge (more on this later) and having spare parts on hand. Some trackers avoid rubber rollers altogether, favoring the plastic rollers which were more common in the later years of 8-track. If your thumbnail leaves an indentation which doesn’t spring back in a black rubber pinch roller, the roller is probably no good. The solution? Check pinch rollers carefully before you casually stick unfamiliar tapes into your player. For example, the dreaded 8-track tar, a horrible mess that fills your player with goo, is caused by decaying rubber pinch rollers. Many of the frequently-encountered malfunctions of 8-track tapes and players are caused by time and repeated use. Although 8-track has always been a somewhat, shall we say challenging format, certain aspects of it become more difficult with the passage of time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |