Help On Old Panasonic 8-Track

[Logos]

Anybody know anything about these?

Googled and found nothing.

Radio plays great, but I tried a few old 8-track tapes and it does nothing......pressing "Program" button does nothing. Program indicator light stays on "One."

Never had an 8-Track before and these tapes were just lying around, so I don't even know if they were playable anyway.

Any possibilities of playing tapes with this?

Thanks.

 

[tom3]

About all the 8 track players have a belt drive. The belt turns to black tar after the many years. Sometimes it's a real mess to clean up in there. Fairly simple mechanism and usually the rest of the stuff is ok. Sometimes for an unusual application it's easier to buy an assortment of belts, cost a couple dollars more than one and have extras for the next time. Might be a bit difficult to replace the belt in that player though, pretty compact unit.

 

[Logos]

Hmmmm.......thanks.

Well, maybe I'll leave well enough alone. The radio sounds great, anyhow.....and it's a classic old portable that looks pretty cool.

I got it at an estate sale and the lovely old couple had lost the AC cord so they sold it for a dollar and put six new D batteries in it to show that it worked.

"Keep the batteries," they said. I just shook my head in amazement and said thanks.

The first AC cord that I tried (from an AIWA boom box) worked perfectly.

 

[Jon A.]

That belt hasn't necessarily turned to tar, it may have gotten so weak that it just snapped and fell off. In many 8-track decks, capstan rotation also plays a part in channel selection. As long as you hear a click of some kind when pressing the program button, the solenoid is good. Take a piece of string and tie it tight around the pulleys, then cut that string and measure it. Also note the grooves in the pulleys, if any. The belt could be flat. If the pulleys have a V-groove (square belt), measure one side of that groove. If the groove is rounded or there is no groove at all, measure straight across. Go to turntableneedles.com, they sell belts by size and will sell you one slightly smaller so the new one doesn't just slip off. If you do a brand search and this player comes up in the list, double-check to make sure they're right about the belt type. They were wrong about the belts (yes, belts, two around the same pulleys) in my '75 Ford stereos.

As for the tapes, chances are the pressure pads have gone bad (if they don't spring back right away, the sponge type that is, they're toast, and the felt pads tend to come off the spring-type), and the foil splice might very well come off at the end of a program. Go to katestrackshack.com to get the pressure pads, and you should be able to find foil tape for the splice at a hardware store. Foil tape is necessary for automatic program changes, note the set of contacts to the left of the playback head.

 

[AnalogDigit]

The good part is, unlike cassette decks that require more than one belt, 8 tracks usually have only one belt and it's pretty easy to work on. I had several that the belt turns to goo.

 

[Logos]

Thanks to all for the information.

Most people know nothing of 8-Tracks except they're history......nice to come here and get useful stuff.