8 track repair Misc pt 1

[@dennisdemark8151]

Enjoy this video very much indeed 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼... repaired many 8- track tapes... learned from a gentleman who has passed away some 10 years ago...sure do miss him... RIP Bob🙏🏼🕊️🙏🏼

[@waukee321]

Thanks, hoped they helped out. Wow, almost 13 years ago now since I made these videos! More people into 8 tracks now than when I started collecting in 1990 when people couldn't give them away!

[@waukee321]

I'm glad they help. Hope it keeps a lot of them out of the landfills. Everything today is geared for "buy, keep a little while, then toss"

[@joechlystun7979]

hey, this is joe from Lexington,KY. just wanted to say hi. havn't really been listening to 8 tracks much lately but i got a whole lot at half priced books lately and i've several days off and tried to fix some of them. your video's are even more helpful then i remember. thanks a bunch! cheers

[@waukee321]

Glad they are helping and the tapes aren't ending up in landfills. Watch out and check the splices/foil when the track changes! Especially the CBS/Columbia tapes.

[@nouuuwayewh]

this man is a legend 🙌🙌🙌

[@MB-eh6ev]

I dont how to thank you for this video, you helped me save a rare Beatles 8 track. This is what KZbin is best for.

[@psilocyber251]

Amazing and useful video. Keep it up. That is the attitude to preserve and restore the good things of the past. Thanks a lot, also from my old Eldorado 1976

[@waukee321]

😊

[@InShortSight]

I just wanted to know how the 8 track tape was wound in a continuous loop, just an idle curiosity, and apparantly that means travelling 10 years back in youtubes catalogue. All the content that comes up first in google when searching for how 8 track tapes work just talks about the 8 tracks on the magnetic tape and the read heads and I'm like "but how is the hub reeled in a loop??". This one and another from this channel answered my question though. Thanks stranger from the past!

[@waukee321]

Continuous loop or Moebius loop

[@waukee321]

You're welcome. Been a long while now since I made these and am actually now looking at them again. Like to see these tapes being preserved as long as possible and hoping the videos help in this.

[@DavidLMadWI]

Great videos. Excellent and easy to follow directions. I hate those Scotch Dynarange tapes. What a nightmare! Apparently the designers at Scotch decided their pressure pads were indestructible. Or maybe they knew the life of the format would be a short one.

[@waukee321]

Me too. I try to pull the pads out through the opening on those but it is tricky!

[@The1970sInfatuate]

I had that same kind of problem with my Led Zeppelin II tape. I managed to fix it without opening the cartridge. I just pulled the tape from the left side and had a big loop of tape. Then I just wound it around the pinch roller and it seems to have resolved that problem for the most part. That particular cartridge was a pink MC5 type too and the tape had the spring-loaded felt pads rather than typical foam.

[@waukee321]

I'm glad they are helpful. Like to try and keep them as true to original condition as possible. Even after all this, I recently played a tape, came to the program change, pulled out the tape to inspect the splice, looked good, so continued to play the tape and then....the splice had broken and even though I saved the tape, it got knarled in some places which the iron helped to fix somewhat (never the same though). It was a Columbia/CBS tape (should have known). ALWAYS flex/pull the splice!

[@laffingsal]

Wish I saw it sooner. (great view of clear plastic ring's relation to tape at inner hub). My tale: After only a few loops of tape fell off my hub, I couldn't deal with twisted loops & elected to pull all tape off hub and rewind from scratch. Found myself dealing with 1000's of tape loops. I see from your demo I did not need to go through this drastic step. Nonetheless patience prevailed and I'm about to put cartr back together but face the possibility I might not have tape oriented right. (not front/back, but north/south). Thank you.

[@waukee321]

Yes, thankfully you don't have to unwind the whole tape. For a 90 min tape, it's a real pain and I did it once. If you have the tape starting from the wrong end, you'll know it as the music will play backwards. For some Beatles songs that could be useful!

[@RandyWBrown]

@@waukee321 Revolution number 9 😆

[@marcjennings2157]

Think you for your feed back.i while check e bay for the block 1/4

[@RandyWBrown]

I've still got a twist and it's testing my patience. Any idea other than spooling off more tape and trying again? Thanks for the video!

[@waukee321]

I know it can be frustrating until you get the whole thing balanced out. Either spool off more tape or perhaps you spooled off too much and that's what's causing it. Sometimes the balance point is reached but now the tape is too tightly wound. In that case you need to try and advance the tape (manually turn the reel) to get to the splice point where you then remove the splice and unravel the tape a few times more before re-splicing. High humidity can cause the tape to start sticking together as well.

[@petepictures]

Well done, they are such a hassle many times.they are even more types mechanisms than the ones you've showed

[@waukee321]

Thanks. BTW never play them upside down or tilted back or they will jam. I've had all types of encounters even a warped pinch roller defect.

[@waukee321]

I've had a pretty low success rate in opening them up without cracking or tearing the plastic case. The 5 posts have spurs on them that just grab fiercely to their socket holes. I've resorted to just pulling the tape out and with tweezers, pulling out the pad from the side, repairing it and sliding it back in. Putting a piece of thin cardboard over the laminate and sandwiching it down will help get it back. Then just pull out the top cardboard.

[@mickfizz1]

Why is it called an 8 track? We never had them in Australia

[@waukee321]

Each tape runs music across 4 programs or channels divided evenly by time. The head moves down in 4 even increments (programs) and changes to the next program (via splicing foil activating a solenoid to trigger it) once the tape makes a complete loop. Each of the 4 programs has left and right (2) sub-channels within each program, hence 8 tracks.

[@Seanpiterpater]

Just bought an 8 track player and the 8 tracks that came with it sounds muffled. Any recommendations?

[@waukee321]

For the player part, perhaps the head is dirty or it needs alignment. For the tape part, the foam pad backing may be rotted off.

[@RandyWBrown]

Clean that head with acetone or de-natured alcohol, more potent than the isopropyl alcohol. And the odds of it being dirty for a long long time are high. Secondly the deck may have a head adjustment screw on the bottom of the cabinet and is probably labled as azimuth. Another screw close by might be labled crosstalk, this is the adjustment for when you're playing track 2 or 3 but hearing songs from tracks 1 or 4. If the screws aren't seen through a hole in the bottom of the cabinet then you will have to take it out to adjust. Actually it's easier to clean as well,just be careful with the electricity while adjusting assuming you have to remove the mechanism from the cabinet.

[@LandisExpandis]

Thank you!

[@markcovington8159]

Whenever it becomes necessary to open a sealed RCA cartridge, is it okay to glue it shut when closing the cartridge?

[@waukee321]

Mark Covington In any situation where the tabs or other fasteners are broken, super-glue is the best remedy for sealing (please don't use tape to hold them together). Just be especially sure in these cases to check that the splice foil is good since gluing the case closed is somewhat permanent. Is this a newer RCA cart? Those are glued whereas the older ones are riveted. Be aware that the riveted ones will almost always have a bad splice so pull them out and check immediately when the program ends. I have a video on opening them.

[@markcovington8159]

This is actually a newer RCA cartridge. Whenever I try to close the cartridge, I always put not much but just a little bit of glue on each of the four corners. I only use glue on the corners. That always helps to keep the cartridge shut. I use glue but no tape. Do you think I may be doing it the right way doing it that way? Please let me know either way. Thank you! :)

[@waukee321]

Mark Covington The tricky location for gluing is near the open tape end and especially at those two corners where it is so close to the tape. When gluing here, (1) don't use too much glue and drag a corner of tissue over it to spread it so that it doesn't pool in one spot. When closing the cover, make sure it closes gently and slowly so that it doesn't slam and potentially spray the glue onto the tape. The thing to be careful about tapes that you have glued together is that if you drop them on a hard surface, they may be more prone to opening up again. Also. always remember to NEVER play an 8 track upside down (with top cover label underneath), as the tape will eventually come off the spool in the center and jam, and what a mess then.

[@markcovington8159]

I would never play a tape upside down.

[@waukee321]

Mark Covington That's good. This is more prone to happen and particular on portables/boom boxes with side mounted slots which can tip/lean in the wrong direction causing a tape to be oriented in this upside down manner. I have a few portables that have this warning labeled/pictured (with an "X" over it) on the unit.

[@BazzaBeeBenson]

oh man i wish mine did that when i tried to wind it back up :(

[@waukee321]

Lots of patience!

[@waukee321]

If the splice had broken inside the tape, that is likely what happened. Need to get the tape wound to the beginning of the splice. Hopefully the tape didn't fall off the spool when you opened it. Oh I know, I feel your pain, these tapes require a lot of patience unfortunately. Watching TV while working on them helps alleviate the BORING wind-the-tape-on-the-spool routine.

[@marcjennings2157]

Where can I get a 8 track tape slicer?.

[@waukee321]

You mean a splicing block? You see them on ebay or just Google it. Look for 1/4" size tape splicing block.

[@markcovington8159]

Hey Waukee321. What is the name of the 8-track cartridge that spool of tape you have there showing at the beginning of this video come out of? Thank you! :)

[@waukee321]

+Mark Covington It's been so long that I don't recall. It is a large spool of tape so it likely came from a blank recording tape (Memorex likely) that someone recorded something on. I had a few tapes with broken, cracked shells, some with missing pieces that I saved the tape from. I hate throwing out perfectly good recording tape just because a case is cracked. Often times I will add/splice the tape onto another blank tape making a 30, 45, or 60 min tape into a 90+ min tape. Works great. I think on this one, I wrapped the spool up in plastic wrap or foil to keep it from unraveling for future use. I have used epoxy with modeling clay as a form to fill in large pieces of broken off and missing shell casings. It works great. I don't have a video on this though.

[@markcovington8159]

Hey Waukee. Is there a chance you may one day do a youtube video on adding tape from one blank to another blank tape? If so, when do you think you may be able to do so? Thank you! :)

[@waukee321]

+Mark Covington I'll work on something but as you can see, it's been several years now since I've posted a video due to my move and other things taking precedence and taking care of some family members now. The piano needs tuning for the piano roll videos. Adding on tape is pretty simple. You wind the tape to the splice foil on each roll and remove the splices. You clean off the residual glue. For the roll you are adding the tape to, you use regular non-foil splicing tape on the back side of the tape end that winds around onto the spool and tape it to the back of the other tape coming from the center of the spool of the other reel. You then wind the tape onto the take up spool with the screwdriver technique you see on my other videos until the second reel tape is completely wound off of. Then correctly tension the tape so it pulls out properly and use the foil splicing on the front side of the tape.

[@lindsayhaley903]

How do I keep the labels from disintegrating? I have like 6 Jim Croce tapes and he looks like Freddy Kruger on all of them due to the label scrunching up and rippling. Help! Elvis is at stake here lol

[@waukee321]

You have to be very careful with these laminate type labels. If you fold them in the slightest, they flake off. If you are removing them to get rid of bubbles and to flatten them out see if it's worth the risk first. Try to unpeel them without folding it by lifting in an upward manner while keeping the label flat and straight

[@randyharrigan4790]

Worst ones aside from the scotch, are the RCA ones with the rivet in the backside of the case!!!

[@thevinylgrooverecords4183]

those are easy.. use a soldering iron. Ampex are the worst!!

[@waukee321]

Agree on the RCA ones; need a soldering iron. Ampex are time consuming but using a properly sized flat end screw or bolt will successfully lift each of the 4 posts out individually. The fifth post at the opening (non-roller side) almost always separates easily. I've had some warped reels inside some of these. You have to wind the tape off of it then either find the same reel or using hot water press the other reel flat to get the warp out. Keep these out of extreme heat! I still don't like the GRT ones with the tab that is behind the foam pad

[@HardRockRecords]

i just opened one up and i had a shit load of tape everywhere .... nightmare

[@waukee321]

Sign of a broken foil splice

[@davidrymer3026]

Obviously graphite lubricated tape !!! Touching the surface is not recommended !! Would you suggest wearing disposable surgical gloves to avoid "drop out" on the tape after reconstruction ?

[@waukee321]

I read on one of the tape sleeves that the lubricant was called "Delrin". I looked this up with the following result: "Polyoxymethylene (POM), also known as acetal,[2] polyacetal and polyformaldehyde, is an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction, and excellent dimensional stability. As with many other synthetic polymers, it is produced by different chemical firms with slightly different formulas and sold variously by such names as Delrin, Celcon, Ramtal, Duracon, Kepital and Hostaform." You could wear gloves but always of course wash your hands with soap and water before and after touching the tape. Gently pulling the tape through an Isopropyl soaked piece of paper towel also works well.

[@waukee321]

Sorry, It's due to a deviated septum that requires surgery. I'm sorry for being too poor to afford the surgery. Perhaps you could be a good Christian and contribute? Oh that's right, church attendance and morals have been on the decline since the 60's. BTW, I'm sure your body is perfect in every way too... (What kind of an A-hole criticizes someone who spends the time to give people some helpful advice?)