Tascam 244 help!

[pbeans]

So I received a Tascam 244 in great condition for free a month or two again. I just used it the other day and now, suddenly tapes won't play. The button works fine and when pressed, heads and pinch roller go up, but nothing plays and they go back down a couple of seconds later. Fast forwarding and rewinding work fine. I've cleaned pinch roller/heads, etc and there's no gunk or whatever. I'm new to this machine, but this seems odd as everything looks good and worked just a couple of days again. Thanks.

 

[Dr ZEE]

power it up.
open the casstte door.
then press (gently) on the switch as shown on the attached photo.
when you press on the switch the capstan should start spinning, it may be hard to see, but you can touch/feel it.
If it does not start spinning but you hear motor sound then I'd guess that the capstan belt either off either is broken. You'd need to open bottom cover and see what's going on.

Could be something else? - I don't know.

here's photo