So I've been slowly communicating with a guy who has experience with these decks but now I haven't heard from him for a couple of days. He correctly identified my swing arm problem as a leaky dash-pot, which I fixed. Unfortunately the problem still exists. I've included two links to youtube videos showing what the deck does upon playback with no tape and what the repaired swing arm now does. My big problem here is I can find nothing in the manual for adjusting reel tension other than what I've already tried. I've read that if you don't use these often enough the magnets in the motors go out or something, I don't know. I'm at a loss here currently. Here are the videos I spoke of, if anyone cares to watch and diagnose.
https://youtu.be/YzTwN7eEj6E
https://youtu.be/x8DsCtciMnY
Thanks again for any tips towards any direction.