Kate's Track Shack 8 Track Repair Services Offered Mobile

Ever since we opened up the Track Shack, we have been repairing and servicing 8-tracks. We have repaired over 5000 8-tracks, and the results have been excellent. People have shipped us their carts from all over the world for us to get them playing again. From valuable quadraphonic tapes to even more precious home made tapes of someone's little girl, we have fixed them all. We have had tapes come in that were twisted, spewed out, and crinkled,and they have left fully functional. As long as the tape is not stretched (or erased!), we can restore it to playable condition. Even a stretched tape can be made playable, but we might have to cut out the stretched section.

8-Track Tune-Up

Lets say that you have 8-tracks that have not broken, and you listen to all the time. Chances are that you are not getting the best sound out of them. Since most 8-tracks are at least 15 years old, they are starting to show their age. The two most common maladies are a worn out foam pressure pad and a failing splice. The easiest way to tell if your pressure pad is shot is to look at the end that you insert into the player. See that piece of foam that the tapes is on? That is the pressure pad. Push on the tape with your finger. If the pad does not immediately come back up, then it is shot. A worn out pressure pad can cause sounds bleed over, low fidelity and even a tape jam as pieces of the pad come off and fall into the cart. This is bad news! A failing splice is even worse. The splice is the little piece of metallic tape that joins both ends of the tape loop. Besides keeping the tape together, it also acts as the sensor strip to signal the player to change programs. If it fails, one of two things will happen. Either the tape will fall apart, and go into the cart, or it will get wrapped around the player capstan. If it does the latter, it will continue to play, and continue to pull out tape until you have a terrible jam. This is a real mess!!

The tune-up is basically an 8-track repair before the damage is done. And trust us, your tape will fail. It may sound ok now, but that splice is not long for this world. Getting it and the pad replaced now are your best bets to have your tape last another lifetime. It will sound and play much better.

Some people have asked us if we recommend getting the tapes that they are purchasing from us tuned up. We say "it depends". Some of our customers prefer to do their own work on their carts, which we think is great. Others would rather get their tapes knowing that they will be trouble free, which we understand as well. That is why we state that while all of our tapes are guaranteed to play, we cannot promise that they will not suffer a splice failure down the road, or that they could not use a new pressure pad.

So, if you do not feel comfortable repairing your carts, or you just want them to function worry free, then email us! Sending us a tape that is already at the splice will save us time and you money! If you send us a tape that is at the splice (or already broken at the splice but not spewed or jammed), the charge would be $2.00 per tape + s/h. This covers splices, pressure pads (felt pad repair as needed if the cart uses spring pressure pads), tension adjustment, oiling if necessary. If the tape is not playing when you send it to us because of a jam or minor spew the cost will be at least $3 + s/h. Tapes that have a melted roller, a tape that is more than a minor spew or tape(s) that have been flip upside down (these have to be completely unspool and respooled again) will be at least $5 + s/h. There are some, however (see below), that will be a little bit more. These would be tapes that have completely unspooled and are in a big jumbled up wad. You know the ones I mean!! LOL These can sometimes take hours to repair. (We will email/contact you if they are more than $5 repairs) If you do have a melted roller or tape that is totally spewed, it would be a big help if you could put these individually in a sealed plastic bag. It will keep your other tapes from getting roller melt goo on your other tapes! We promise you that you will be pleased, and you will get back a fully functioning tape.

If possible, if you can get the tapes to the splice before you send them, this will help us get your tapes back to you much quicker (and save you a little money too!). If not, that's okay too.

We have had folks inquiring about doing cassette repairs. These can be a little more difficult to repair. You can send them to us and we'll be glad to give you an estimate of what it will be to repair them, if they can be repaired. Most cassette repairs will start at $4 + s/h.

If you are unsure about what type of repairs your tapes need, then why don't you ship them to us and we'll take a look at them and give you a cost for repairs including s/h back to you. You can send them to: