8-Track Repairs
I got the lot of psychedelic 60s bands I won on ebay yesterday. They practically all needed repairs. I'm glad I bought them, because they were pretty cheap for some hard to find bands, but I think the seller probably knew how effed up they were. They all had super lousy pads. When I opened them they had various problems inside too.

First I fixed the Tremeloes. A Capitol cart, it had a screw under the cover pic. I tried to make a neat incision so I could fold the flap of the label back down over the screw when the repairs were done. Inside the tape was pushed up above the spool in the middle and about 5 inches was accordioned up as if it had been jammed in a player before. I rewound it all correctly and the accordioned bit doesn't sound right but it's a great album. It plays well now with a new pad.

Then I worked on the Ides of March. It too needed pads and was coming unspooled in the middle, but at least it hadn't been accordioned up anywhere. It was the easy-to-open kind too. It plays perfectly now.

The Strangeloves was an Automate cart. It had two screws under the label! Once I figured that out I was home free. Those Automates are well made. I changed the pads on that, and Spiral Starecase, and Human Beinz. The seller threw in a Steeleye Span cart in which the tape had folded in half lengthwise and eventually flipped over backwards and then played until the whole tape is spooled on backwards! Thanks a lot. I believe I have fixed this before by playing it until it repeats the process in reverse and then unfolding the folded area so it can't go backwards again. Oy!

Then I went back to fixing Morton Gould's Jungle Drums. I finally got it wound up at the correct tension, but it still won't play. I think I have the tape path wrong. Every time I put it in, it feeds into the empty space in the tape instead of flowing around the outer hub the way it's supposed to. I tried every tape path I could come up with though and none of them work. It is weird. An 8-track conundrum. It's an RCA cart. Any suggestions? I put it in a bag.

My repair skills all limbered up, I attacked a few RCA riveted carts. I found that if you destroy the plastic around the rivet-head you can pull the rivet out. I have a great pair of pliers for this. From a dentist's office. They look like they were used to pull horse's teeth or something. Huge, needle-nosed, and with an angle in the handle. I fixed Al Caiola, Tommy Dorsey and Super New Sounds of the 70s before I realized I was doing myself injury with the pliers. I had been bracing the end of the handle against my stomach and repeatedly pinching it between the handles. Now I have a purple bruise. But I fixed three of those consarned difficult tapes with minimal damage to their cases.

Then I tried another Ampex cart. Bad move. I destroyed the case using the prying method. The center plastic pin simply would not budge. The case broke instead. I can put it back together and play it, but it looks like hell. Some of them pop right open, but some give me a pain.

Well I thought that was enough work, and destruction, for one night. Especially after I realized I was bruising my stomach! But there's a learning curve. You hafta keep fixing them to learn how to do it right. Now I have a method for rivets that I like.