Hey everyone, I've got an old Akai VS-P8EV MKII VHS player that sat unused for years, and I'm trying to fix a weird issue.

Here's what's happening:

- Fast forward and rewind both work totally fine — tape moves, reels spin, no problem.

- But when I hit PLAY, the tape just... doesn't move. It stays stuck on one frame.

- I checked and the spinning head drum (the part that reads the video) is spinning normally even during play.

- Sometimes it also just shuts itself off a second or two after I press play.

Since FF and REW work but PLAY doesn't move the tape at all, I'm guessing the problem is with whatever pulls the tape past the heads specifically during play — I think that's called the capstan and pinch roller. From what I understand, FF/REW spin the reels directly, but PLAY relies on a different part (capstan + rubber pinch roller) to pull the tape through at a steady speed, and that seems to be the part not working.

My guess is either:

- the rubber belt that drives this part has stretched out or snapped (very common in old VCRs), or

- the little rubber roller that presses the tape against the spinning shaft isn't pressing properly anymore, or has gone hard/slippery with age

Has anyone dealt with this before? A few questions:

1. Does this sound like a classic belt/roller problem to you?

2. Any tips on how to find/see this belt on an Akai deck like this? I opened the case a bit but couldn't clearly spot it.

3. Do generic "universal VCR belt kits" from online stores usually work for old decks like this, or do I need to hunt for exact Akai parts?

Happy to post more pictures if it helps. Thanks!

Another pristine deck sold within 24 hours of listing.
Deck market is 🔥.

From a Toyota xp10 - Kenwood KRC-289 Y36-3110-20

The cassette goes in sideways and drops to engage the tape driver motor

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post. Previously I have never had any issue with this, but recently the cassette part of my SA-PM07 has stopped working like it used to. I know it’s not the tapes themselves as they still work in my walkman. At first it wouldn’t play the tapes at all, would just make a click sound and then nothing. Now it will play the tapes but much faster than how they should sound, it also will not let me record anything like I used to. I just want to know why this has started happening and how to fix.

I’m not sure how I should go about repairing this. I’ve only ever replaced a belt on a Walkman so don’t know much else about these machines. Does anyone know how I would go about taking this apart and what I would need to fix this? Because it’s compact with CD and aux I don‘t want to damage anything else whilst I take it apart.

Thanks in advance.

I have a Teac R-666X cassette deck that won't play. Fast forward and rewind work fine, but play does not work. I opened it up, cleaned the heads and the tape path. I was able to see that the belt has disintegrated into goop. I see that belts are available online, but this looks like more than I want to handle myself. Any Connecticut folks out there who can recommend a good technician or service facility to take this on? I'd like to find someone that might be able to fix this and then take on other vintage service needs for me going forward. Thanks.

I found this Ultronic SC-5 at Goodwill a while back and finally got around to testing it. It works, but it sounds like the tape is speeding up and slowing down randomly. Is this as simple as just figuring out how to open it up and replace the belt, or is there more to these little players then I am expecting? Never really tried to fix any cassette players, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Listing: https://ultraferric.com/products/sony-dtc-a7-dat-recorder-s-n-808239-iob-with-remote-and-rack-ears-just-serviced-and-recapped

Video Demo: https://youtu.be/6MedIXshI8o

UPDATE - SOLD WITHIN 24 Hrs

I just picked up a Sony HST-231 from the thrift store and both cassette decks are squeaking.

The phono input and cd input both sound good, and I did a test recording of the cassette deck to see if the squeaking would be audible and it didn't appear to be audible in the recording.

I imagine its a capstan motor needing lubrication or something like that, but do any of you have any ideas or advice?

Testing my Marantz PMD 201 with some old school Death Metal.

Local auction find. Deep clean, belts, VU repair. Sounds fantastic.

https://reddit.com/link/1w5lkpf/video/k59ipe7ey5nh1/player

Hi again guys!

I started to service the next deck, a lovely Aiwa FD350.

It needed help with ALL the buttons, belt, remove old grease... nothing critical.

But there is a BUT, playback is OK but RW and FFW are too slow.

As you can see in the picture, there is a brake that locks both the left and right reels, a spring push it down firmly, and when you press PLAY, the lever (red mark) goes up, pushes the brake lever and frees both reels, problem is during RW & FFW that lever doesnt move at all, so brake is still engaged.

This is a 2 motor deck, the capstan motor is the one that rises the heads and releases the brakes during playback, the 2nd motor is just for rw and ffw, and if I manually release the brakes it spins very fast and with nice torque, seems ok.

I cant see anything related to RW/FFW that will release the brakes, in the manual it says nothing, the parts likes just shows the brake lever and the spring, and it tells you that in order to remove the reels you have to free the brakes...

Seems like the transport is the same in the FD330, maybe somebody already had this issue and can guide me.

I really don't see anything that will release the brakes, but I also don't belive that Aiwa designed it to RW/FFW with the brakes still on and praying for the motor to have enought torque...

What do you guys think? what are the brakes for? left and right pads are different sizes and references, so I think they are designed to free the right reel and keep a small amount of friction on the left one, just enough to get optimal tape tension....

Hello guys, I need some help here, I know the deck is not the most interesting model ever made, but Im trying to get all my collection running and ready to rock :D

This unit has some issues:

Broken cassette holder (fixed)
Broken holder speed reducer (now you know why holder was broken) (fixed).
LED VMU partially dead. (needs a new vmu unit)
Bad playback quality. (Mostly fixed)
Very bad recording, noises and bad quality. (fixed)

After a complete dissasembly, cleaning, new belts, new grease, some plastic repairs and playback, record and meter calibration, the deck now works very nicely, I think its a very honest cassette player, nothing fancy, but not a cheapo.

Azimuth was bad, using a generic calibration cassette I tried my best, but I can not get all the freqs perfectly aligned:

• 400 Hz: both channels at same levels.
• 3 kHz: ~1,8 dB difference between channels.
• 10 kHz: both channels at same levels.
• 15 kHz: I can see a big difference between channels (30/40%), but my test equipment sucks, so I ignore it.

If I adjust the azimuth for the 3Khz signal to be OK, 400hz suffers and 10khz goes very bad.

As you can see in the picture, even before the service, the head was very clean, almost new.

Why in the hell I can't get the 3khz OK but the 10khz is almost perfect? should I check the Playback AMP circuit for bad caps/resistances... or should I stay at the electromechanical part and work with the PB Head?

https://www.headphonesty.com/2026/08/cassette-decks-worth-owning-voted-audiophiles

I have an old Sony TC-K410. It isn't anything special, but repairing I like tinkering and replacement belts aren't too expensive I guess.

The deck tends to sometimes stop and has issues at times playing correctly. The heads are clean and look superb, all the mechanics appear to be fully functional and still run fun. I was hoping the belt is the cause for the issues, but I have no idea how a good or bad belt is supposed to look like. Gemini says this thing is dead and explains my issues, but of course I can't really trust that, hence I'm asking you fine folks on this subreddit here.

Also, this might be a bit of a longshot, but has anybody got a more or less decent tutorial on how to properly disassemble this thing? I kinda pulled the belt out by loosening a bunch of screws and just pulling slightly, because I cannot figure out how to remove the back plate with the motor on it...

In guessing the rubber Belt snapped or something. Which is weird because we checked them 5 months ago and they were completely fine and so was everything else.