Funny enough,...
but [I'm a 244 expert,.... no,]
I have a 244, I've had this problem, and I've fixed it too.
There's a belt that drives the head back & forth, and it's on a servo circuit. Two things may happen. Either the belt stretches, and is not driving the head efficiently, or the set-point of the servo has drifted. This is the adjustment that adjusts the throw of the headstack, in it's back & forth motion.
All things being the equal, my money is on the 'set point' adjustment. I can't quote which pot to adjust, but since my 244 needs to be looked into, for a flaky channel, I'll pop the cover off it, & maybe do some research & report back to you later.
Mind you, the belt can stretch & could always be the problem, but once you find the adjustment point, you'll see if you have enough range of adjustment to adjust the problem away,... that is to get the heads to retract to their fully down position.
I don't remember which pot is for the head-load adjustment, but I remember I found it intuitively, & that it's near where the head-load motor plugs into the circuitry.
To the best of my memory, the head-load belt and circuit is accessible from the bottom panel. BTW, I'll either dig around in the 244, or go find the actual 244 Service Manual, & report back later.
/DA
