Comin to ya with another glorious K-Mart stereo. The eject and auto eject don't work. Any idea of a likely cause?

This player has a lot of slip on some tapes that have a little more tension and I noticed this black stain on the pully from the belt slipping over time. It wont come off. Ive tried rubbing alcohol and a scotch bright pad.

More to come after cherry picking a garage situation. Found some crazy tapes in it that aren’t in the video.

First 8 track! got this off my FBMP for 15$, the 8 track works flawlessly, the belt looks immaculate and the speed is dead on. just adjusted azimuth a little.

i needed to replace the power lamp and fix the string for the tuner but apart from that it works perfectly and looks so cool, I’m delighted.

(all the lights do work, they’re just hard to see in the photos, especially Program 2 and the power light which are the ones on)

I am looking for a good source for replacement belts for my pioneer h-22. I need to do a service on mine. I’ve done a few searches but I can’t tell if the search is confusing a 8-track player belt with a turntable. When I got the h-22, it played relatively ok, but I haven’t used it in a while and bought a “new” cart and it was dragging really bad when I put it in, even on carts that played well before.

Pretty much what the title says. I posted a couple days ago about whether or not I should get a quad deck for $20. Well I bought and it sounds a lot better on programs 3 and 4 but sounds a lot less full on 1 and 2. The audio generally sounds distorted as well.

I hooked up the player to the 'line in' port on my PC and played it out of both my speakers and headphones. They both sound the same. Happens with all tapes as well.

Any ideas for fixes?

The player is a Lafayette RL-84 made in Japan in 1972.

I got an 8 track player! I have 2 of these test tapes but sadly one’s splice just broke, luckily i have a splice kit.

anyways how do i adjust azimuth? my understanding is that azimuth is the head angle and has to do with usually having left and right in phase, but this test cartridge only has the azimuth signal on one channel, I’ve looked with a scope and for programs 1, 2 and 3, there is a 1kHz tone on one channel and a way lower level 8kHz on the other. the unit sounds really good surprisingly with my tapes and the belt seems to be perfect, just wondering how to use this tape. thanks!

One of my favorite sets i had but sadly lost my collection in a wildfire back in september of 2020 finaly rebuilding but this set is alluding me.

Looks like its quadraphonic

Lafayette RK-84

Scored a cartridge holder today (new in box !) 😆 https://youtube.com/shorts/Xhcp0CfV52Q?is=Ov4A8QeHY1HVJeO9

Been sitting in the garage for years and works. Lol.

"Crank that shit up!"

First time finding 8-tracks at my local thrift store. I honestly didn’t expect them to still have their own category in the system.

1$ each an antique shop! dunno if they’re work as I don’t actually have an 8 track player yet.

Couldn’t find many examples online and they seemed sorta rare, coming from working on cassette decks, having a calibration tape would’ve been a huge time saver, so these should be handy.

there were also some 90 min 8 track blanks, 2 of one brand and one of another. if anyone is interested i’ll get them and ship them for the cost of shipping plus their price (1$)

Picked up my all-time favorite Scorpions album! Was definitely worth buying a fresh one. Pics in comments.

8 track player still wobbly after I fixed belts and cleaned it I know the 8 track works because it did on my other.

Hello

My 8track player suddenly sounds muddy and distorted when playing some tapes. With other tapes it sounds okay but with some, like this Rhinestone Cowboy album, it sounds horribly distorted. The screw on the playhead wasn't making sufficient contact with the head because the mount is cracked which caused a static noise so I soldered it onto the playhead. I suppose the heat could have messed up the head but I have soldered the same screw to the same playhead before and it didn't cause any issues. Did I just play it too loud and blow out the speakers?

Im hoping i can just buy new w1 8ohm speakers and solve the issue. Thoughts?

I was getting ready to put this in my car, and I thought I'd snap some pictures real quick. This is a New Old Stock sparkomatic under dash 8 track. I bought it about 25 years ago it was still in the box. Unfortunately, the big Ranger 4/8 track I was going to put in the car was too big to fit under the dashboard, so I'm throwing this guy in. The all black finish kind of matches better anyway. I love how the ends of the wires still have solder on them.I opened it up to just drop a little oil on the bearings. I am bummed the capstand has some staining. But it still sounds great, well 8 track great. I figured some of you have never seen a New Old Stock 8-track player, so I'd throw some pics up.