Sounds like a broken drive belt. It's actually more like a rubber band but should be hard to get fixed.
thanks i appreciate it ill try and fix it wish me luck. hopefully i can i have a bunch of 80's tapes i want to listen to lol.
ok so i took it apart and that rubber band thing is still their. any other ideas why this thing does not play?
Even if the rubber is there, it might be so loose and it is slipping. It's difficult to try and diagnose online. As I recall, if you can hook up power, while on the bench, you should be able to play a cassette with the cassette mechanism out of the unit and see what is or is not happening. You can order a shorter belt from MCM electronics. If I remember to look, I can get a part number off the belts I order for mine and post it. I bought a bunch of these era radios with cassettes and I swap parts back and forth to get them working again. I've had the radio part go bad but aside from the belt, the cassette is pretty reliable.
ok that sounds like the problem the belt seemed to be streched. any idea of the correct routing for the belt? incase its wrong or i mess it up.
In the photo you can see the routing, I put some dashed lines on the belt cover so you see how it's route under there. Foreground is the belt I use from MCM, that is the catalog number. I suggest getting several if you plan to use that radio because the belts "age" fast , maybe every couple years need replacement.
dont want to step on your thread oliver12, but could the belt also be my problem guys? insert a tape, and the unit spits them back out...
I can't remember if I ever had this problem or not. But I think if the belt slips, the mechanism doesn't engage fully and hold in the tape. I'd give it a try, it's not hard to get to the cassette player and replace the belt, while your in there look to see all is clean and lubed, not rusty with lint and other debris in the mechanism. The tape head may have oxide on it and need to be cleaned for best sound anyway.
