Hello fellow 8-track player!! I have many 8-track tapes collected over the last few years,and have got really good at "re-viving" them so that they will play again.First off,if the tape cartridge has the foam-type pressure pad,go down to your local hardware store and try to find some adhesive-backed weatherstripping,like used to seal out cold air around windows/doors/etc.Your going to have to buy a thickness of this type of material that DOES NOT make contact with the back of the tape when you remove the old rotten-out pressure pad and add a new piece.Cut the foam strip to fit in the head contact area hole,center it as close as you can using a pair of small tweezer to hold the non-adhesive side of the foam strip,press it into place where you totally removed the old pressure pad (use the tweezers to remove the old crumbling pressure pad,all off it,including the small plastic strip the foam was originally attached to),so that the sticky side is making contact with the plastic and being helt in place where the tape head makes contact with the tape.You may need some type of alcohol-based cleaner to remove the sometimes sticky residue from your tweezers and inside the cartridge head hole left behind by the old pad.The importance of the above mentioned thickness of the foam is to not hold the tape right up against the back of the tape,so you leave about a 1/16 or so of an inch gap there,so that you don't prematurely rub/force off the lubricated backing of the tape,as it is making contact with the tape head and being played.You may be able to notice this gap with tapes that still have a good pressure pad.Now if the 8-track tape uses a spring-copper looking pressure pad,you will have to look still further in the hardware store,and find some of those thin felt pads used on things you don't want to scatch up the tops of furniture with,small felt "feet" I call them,and they are sold in small circles the size of dime-size coins or smaller,usually a whole bunch of them on a single sheet.They come with adhesive on the back,use these to replace the felt that is falling off these spring metal-type pressure pads you find on many 8-track tapes.If you find them in "dots",find the right size,carefully scape of the
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