portastudio 488 trouble

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8tracker

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So I dragged my trusty 488 8-track out of the corner (standing on its side to maximize floor space), and hefted a huge box of old tapes out of the basement, in an effort to rescue 10 years' worth of recordings. I demagnetized the heads, plugged the unit in and powered up. Put in a tape, hit play, and nothing happened except the "play," "pause" and "record" lights blinking on and off in unison. Hit rewind, same thing. The unit seems to be jammed up, or something (I'm not sure). Anyone have any answers/suggestions for me?
 
broken drive belt?

It's possible; the tape heads seem to rise VERRRRY SLLOOOOWWWLLYY, yet never fully engage. I'm not too worried about it; these units are going for anywhere from $200 to $40 used on eBay, in good condition at that.
 
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