My most sincere thanks for all who responded to my dilemma of having
my 8-track player eat a lovely tape I was trying to convert to a CD.

The fix that a number of you suggested is incredibly simple.  I first
smoothed out the slightly damaged portion of the tape within the 2-foot
loop hanging outside.  Then, with the label facing me and the loop
hanging down, I gave a short quick tug on the right feeder side of
the loop.  To my utter amazement, the left take-up side of the tape
promptly began to rewind back into the case all by itself.  Couple more
tugs and it was all back in place, almost as good as new; a slight
distortion on playback over the slightly damaged portion, but quite
tolerable.

The cartridge player is a Lloyds, not "high end", with its own
amplifier, balance, tone and volume controls in a neat wooden case.
It works well feeding its speaker signal into a high-end amplifier
connected to my computers sound card.  It's quite easy to strike a
balance between the two volume controls for good results using Cool
Edit Pro.

I found the capstan to be quite dirty, again.  Seems only a few
months ago I had it open to do the same thing.  Looks like operating
it with old tapes will require more frequent cleaning and occasional
burnishing.

The advice emerging on the tapes themselves is quite interesting.
I had not really closely examined the roller and sponges.  In many
cases, I'm finding them quite dirty, if not outright deteriorated
beyond use.  Gonna have to be more observant in the future.

I also found that, with care and a steady hand, it is possible to
transfer a tape from a case with a permanently disabled drive wheel,
into another case in good condition.

It's been an interesting adventure.  Yet another great example of
the Internet at its finest.  How else would someone get answers from
world-wide sources within 24 hours!  A sincere vote of appreciation
to Jody and Robbie for their outstanding efforts over so many years.

Regards,

Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
http://www.mts.net/~smythe