Busted 8 Track Player, Will It Play Again? | Vintage Hifi Revival

I've been watching this 8 Track player for some time, decided to finally pick it up and see what 8 tracks are all about. They actually sound surprisingly good; I believe they run at a faster speed than the compact cassette, and they are also a source of some incredible funk from that era haha.
This was a pretty straightforward repair, even if the cause of the error is lost on me and working on stuff from this time is just a joy as it is all metal, with no plastic clips to break or delicate electronic components to go bad.

[@dennisdemark8151]

Love this...I have many 8-track tape players. from high end to one such as this one you're repairing.

[@jasonw6688]

That was awesome! Great job resurrecting that old 8-track player. I would recomment servicing the carts too if you're gonna play em regularly. Adjusting the tape tension and replacing the pressure pad and the sensing foil tape is most important. I had bought some 8-tracks from a record resale shop once and the guy at the counter told me they probably wouldn't play. I told him I know I how to service em and get em playing like new. I posted video of the tapes playing to the store's FB page and he was impressed.

[@elgarsstupans7209]

Just found your channel and this is amazing!

[@HifiJelly]

Thanks, glad you like it!

[@dennisdemark8151]

Two 8- track videos in a row is never a" lot"

[@insolentstickleback3266]

Fun video for me, as I am about to open up the Sanyo 8 track my mom bought in the mid 70’s. It was my first HI-FI 😆😁

[@HifiJelly]

Thanks! And good luck!

[@71tbomb]

I worked as a car detailer for years. We use air compressors & mild degreasers to remove dirt ect from hard to get to places like the front grill of this 8 track you were trying to clean. Hope this helps. Good vid too. Cheers.

[@VintageGearMan]

For those people fighting an 8 track player with huge radical speed problems, the power supply may need to be re-capped. It is not always the motor going south. If the power supply is sending unstable voltage to the entire unit the motor will run crazy fast,,slow back to a normal speed, a quick jump sounding chirp in speed,,,,over and over. My "Sony TC-228" went nuts like this yesterday. I replaced 2 capacitors that were waaay out on tolerances on the power supply PC board and also the stand alone big trash can capacitor next to the transformer and now the speed is excellent again. I got lucky it was not the motor.

[@adamrichards3174]

The wow and flutter will improve some if you change out the rubber band for a proper black rubber belt.

[@dennisdemark8151]

Enjoyed the video very much...love my 8-tracks and 8-track tape players.

[@ekimp252]

Just found your channel and I gotta say, this is really good stuff. I enjoy your methods of diagnosing issues along with the repair and cleaning segments. As someone who was a teenager in the ‘70s, 8-tracks were the best! Except when they started dragging, then you’d have to put a book of matches under the tape to maybe get it to stop. If that didn’t work, sometimes you could pull the tape out one side and pull it back in on the other side quickly. That sometimes worked to take the slack out. Had a friend who’s mom worked at Sears and he had an 8-track recorder. Man, we thought we were high tech, recording tracks off of LPs and 45s. Prehistoric mix tapes. The main thing I remember about 8-tracks was the factory versions that changed tracks in the middle of songs. Free Bird, arguably Lynyrd Skynyrd’s biggest song, changed tracks in the middle. Anyway, loving your content!

[@HifiJelly]

Thanks! Glad you enjoy!

[@VintageGearMan]

A in line EQ is a must for these old tapes to make up for signal loss at times due to the age of some tapes. You can really make these tapes sound very, very good again with an EQ.

[@giggling_boatswain]

9:06 I suspect that there was a felt sleeve soaked in oil. You dug out the remnants of the old felt at the beginning of the disassembly.

[@emmanueljuarez4431]

Vid uploaded just in time days before the Day of the Dead! Thanks for sharing!

[@morse.500thomas6]

Saw your video on your 8-track player very good

[@HifiJelly]

Many thanks!

[@morse.500thomas6]

Morse electrophonic from the late 1968 I have a console stereo that's made by the same company never been worked on still works today

[@lawrencelawrence5920]

I remember seeing a lot of Electrophonic/Morse being sold at K-Mart, Woolworth type stores. I had one in the late 70s, had a 8track recorder/cassette recorder and record player combo. I had it for a few years before it was stolen from our home in the mid 80s.

[@donaldmacdougall1600]

Used to have one of these it was part of the first stereo system I bought in 1970. Receiver with built in record changer. Two external speakers and stand.

[@johnshea9526]

I have a few of them and love to play them and I love working on the tapes and playing them. Also I have some vehicle players. I love old ways of playing music.

[@b.powell3480]

Put the contact switch back in and adjust it to just clear the cartridge and it should work, clean up the capstan and heads,also the rubber idler roller, the unit should work normally

[@karenl.9234]

Nice to see another Grado headphones fan! I only have the SR60e but they sound amazing for the price! Little bulky though

[@heelan19]

More content plz!!!

[@Bert-Beukema]

If that is real veneer I'll eat my shoes. These cheap boxes had almost uniformly laminated coverings. You can see the difference because the 'veneer' is a single length flapped over the edges. Real veneer would stop at the edges of the box. That said, in good condition laminate can look just nice.

[@HifiJelly]

Good call it had me fooled, looking at it in more detail and yeah, it's definitely not real as its bent over the edges and around the front. Also, that would explain the bubbling around the bottom feet.

[@jeffsimon9594]

TY for this. Currently working on a quite similar JVC Nivico unit, but this one does not have any convenient oiling hole on the motor. This is quite frustrating as there seems to be no place to apply oil and the motor casing gets too hot to touch during normal operation.

[@dennisdemark8151]

Love this channel 😍

[@HifiJelly]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@sailawaybob]

I bought a am fm 8 track player from as antique store for $25. Think its a jc penney brand and it played for a month or so and than quite. I need to take it apart and see it its the same issue.

[@brianreynolds6303]

Good job on this 8 Track Player.

[@tomj4506]

Electrophonic A.K.A. Morse - Electrophonic. We sold them at the shop. Cheap, overhyped low end stuff. Always tried to sell something else. They had a distributor 15 mi away in Framingham Ma. Handy for parts etc for us. I dont think Sears sold them but any real radio - TV shop could. I bet your microswitch had a plastic roller on it. If it fell off the tape would hit the actuator arm instead of the roller. Anyhows it does have a nice heavy motor. LFOD !

[@faulknik000]

It looks like it may have been made for Electrophonic by Matsushita / Panasonic, based on the logos on the motor and switch. It's interesting to see how well-built it is compared to the later cost-reduced designs that appeared in the '70s. I have a similarly low-end Craig 8-track player made by Pioneer from around the same time period as yours, and it is also extremely well built while having an almost minimalist internal layout. It's so well-built that it even has an unusual oil distribution system with a cotton-filled plastic cup acting as an oil holder with little oil pipes leading to the main motor and capstan bearings.

[@HifiJelly]

Wow an oiler system in an 8-track is absolutely ridiculous. I love it.

[@originalsupermommy]

I found out my 8-track players were not working because I was putting the tapes in upside down.

[@cranke99]

Can anyone tell me if changing a belt can peoduce an annoying hum from the player during tape play? I changed out a 6.1" square belt to a 6" round belt and the player has a higher humming sound. What's that about??

[@Truckguy1970]

You probably could have bent that bracket out a little bit towards the outside of the deck to make that switch work

[@REXXSEVEN_II]

Excellent picture quality

[@michaelshultz2540]

To reslack the tape find the splice remove the splice take the tape and gently tug the end on the outside of the spool untill lightly snug. Then pull out 3-4 feet of tape from the center of the spool and resplice with new metal splice tape. Then re assembl the case . Now with the excess tape hanging out of the cartridge gently and patiently pull the tape from the supply side untill all the slack is back inside the cartridge. Wala now tape is reslacked

[@bobsbits5357]

hi carboots in the uk were full of them i have worked on alot of them over 30 years wear of the carts is very bad i went over to 4 track carts with out the pinch rollers i jazz up alot of 8 tracks to 4 track i know of a way to cut the hole in 8 tracks as the wear on the pinch was not playing right i order a lot of brass rods for in side and turned down parts to go in side the 8 tracks

[@trudakidancorlf8059]

Hey! Did you by chance by that deck from the reuseum and the tape from the Record exchange? The pricetags on both items look very familiar

[@waukee321]

I grew up with 8 tracks but I never really bought any; was into vinyl. Then I just started collecting them around 1990 at flea markets and thrift shops for about 25 cents to $1. People I bought from looked at me like I was weird and some said "You still buy 8 tracks?" Then ebay came a long and goodbye cheap 8 tracks or even finding them. I've worked on several players and tapes and posted some videos mostly on tapes. What do you have is a very solid piece; I love the durable AC motors even though they tend to get hot after a while which is why there is a metal vent grill on the bottom of it. Looks like they used a rubber band instead of a dry belt (?) which can cause the wow and flutter in the sound. Rubber bands are okay for things like analog Tape timers/counters. The issue with the switch is perhaps that it's not the original part and somebody replaced it wiith another that doesn't fit the way it should. If you could reference your player with another exactly like it and see how that one is configured would be helpful.

[@mauriceclemens3286]

8 tracks were from the 60’s. And you should use silicone lube on plastic not oil. Oil will attack the plastic over time.

[@simonlunt353]

I have not seen one of these 8 tracks for a long time here in the uk 🇬🇧 but I bet you guys in the USA 🇺🇸 see all the time l have got a realistic Cassette deck and I love it 😍 still going strong you can’t beat Tandy gear

[@absalomdraconis]

Depends on where you are. They were pretty common for a while there, but they seem to have worked their way out of the thrift shops now, mostly it's newer stuff.

[@jamesbaker429]

When cleaning use a brush will follow all the valleys to new and use a dry one on fabric to dry them.

[@dennisdemark8151]

Great job 👌🏼

[@HifiJelly]

Thanks!

[@powerday_Hi-B]

Прикольная штуковина.. Где вы их находите?

[@theallknowingsause8940]

This might seem weird but it might just be intended to push the cartridge very hard into the player, it helps it stay in place, which my 8-track player has answering just like that, but it's very weird it's just 1 roller intended to hold it up.. it might just be that the roller on that switch has gone hard and doesn't roll, and causes it to be dumb and stiff? Just some ideas

[@HifiJelly]

Thats a really good idea, I'd not considered that the wheel at one point could've been more pliable.

[@theallknowingsause8940]

@@HifiJelly I think my player has a similar issue, when I first got it, it was very hard to push in a cartridge, but I've used it much more since and I think it's more loose then it was before

[@precbass]

The grooves on the front? An old toothbrush is your friend.

[@robertdavis5714]

Hate 8 Track, but thoroughly enjoyed watching this. I remember seeing that For Sale in the early 1970's, when 8 Track ruled the World. That thing is built like a Tank, plastic few a far between. 8 Track recorder, did not know that existed, leave it to Radio Shack.

[@HifiJelly]

Thanks! The recorder really feels janky since, as far as I know, there are no write protect notches on the 8 track, so anything can be very easy written over, and then if you want to see how the recording went you have to fast forward/play it until the part you recorded comes around again.

[@jhonwask]

I have a TR-883. It needs a new belt. I used it for years and it was always great.

[@btrdangerdan2010]

Cute little ratchet wrench 🛠️

[@robertlewis4216]

Sounds to me like you've still got some wow and flutter problems. Or maybe that's just the way it is with one of these!

[@HifiJelly]

Yeah, I think it's from the machine that I used to record the 8 Track that I was playing at the end of the video. The belt was loose on it and to quickly fix it I just overlapped it on itself and glued it haha. Also, I think it can depend on the cartridge, that waltz may be an especially bad one.

[@zippy1981dotnet]

I would have used PTFE dry lube in the fly wheel so it would not collect dust like grease does

[@VintageGearMan]

I hope this helps a fellow 8 tracker.

[@gboy64]

At the 17:14 - 17:18 mark, and for a split second, doesn't that sound like Duke Nukem if my memory serves me correctly?

[@HifiJelly]

You’d be correct, it’s sampled in the song.

[@leonardvld9334]

does anyone know the title of the first song

[@HifiJelly]

I sure do! soundcloud.com/hunter-stone-7/mandala Here ya go

[@jankro1]

I remember that 8 tracks did not have those ridges

[@jimdayton8837]

Some did some didn't. It depended on who manufactured the cartridge.

[@fishrider62]

I had a 8 track in the glove box in my car, I would buy bootleg tapes from the flea market for .50 each. So annoying when they changed tracks in the middle of a song! lol

[@raulduke6105]

We can only hope it won’t

[@Mac__Tonight]

i expect more views on this then the last one xddd

[@HifiJelly]

Haha, so far so good.

[@mvbabko3304]

When you eat track tape gets old they pop at the silver track then the tapes no good it's not worth taking apart repairing the Amtrak tape but as they all get old they pop in between tracks at the silver on the tape so if you got think you got a good attract tape it's going to be gone soon she'll pop

[@brianeastman3547]

It's probably your belt

[@bobsbits5357]

corr my bat ears can hear the tapes are not right my mate got 100's of quad audio i payed out crazy money all are not playing right and they are new sealed one's it's the deck wear on the akai deck i use soundcraft 381-8 for quad audio at 7 1/2 i jazzed it to take 7 1/2 i have a bennel mini 8 old decks are money pits big time and i know what i am doing

[@Kava217]

Ой бумбарык бумбаранык бумбаранык бумбаро 👅 !

[@paulgreen6302]

Hairy arms

[@berylhemmings7003]

If u keep tings away from peaple they don't need it but young peaple will want know how tings work it they see it every day

[@loadi2865]

You broke the dam thing with your big dril.......🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@colingarner6175]

What’s a sadering iron ? I think you mean soldering iron . 😂

[@michaelshultz2540]

Ok video. But not to be to critical, I would have done a much better job with a lot less effort. And a without any mangled parts, or modifications. But i grew up with 8 tracks and as a boomer electronics tech am an expert at fixing4& 8 track tapes and players. And that still is not working properly there should not be any wow and flutter. Which could be that the tape needs re-slacked and the pinch roller in it cleaned. Some tapes have a hard plastic roller they suck. But if everything is clean they will work well.

[@waukee321]

They do work well if everything is in good order. Most cap stands should have a roughened surface to them too, not the smooth shiny surface that you often see. The shiny surface comes from years of use of the rough surface being worn down. Do not try to roughen up the surface yourself, which can only be done by a professional who sandblasts them. The Wollensak brands particularly need to have a rough capstan surface in most cases, others manage without it.

[@colingarner6175]

Shrunk not shrinked 😂