How to Clean a Cassette Deck

If the deck is just eating your tape and you can't rewind or fast forward, cleaning the deck as follows may help the tape start playing smoothly again.

Steps

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    Remove the tape from the deck.
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    Open up the tape compartment.
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    Gather Isopropyl alcohol (70-80%)Q-tips and a lens cleaning cloth.
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    Soak the Q-tip in the alcohol.
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    Clean the heads. Press fast forward and rewind so that the heads move. This will allow you to clean the heads more evenly.
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    Clean the pinch roller. Press play so the roller is moving when you clean it. This part tends to be very grimy.
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    Clean the capstan. This will also move when you press play. The capstan is the thin metal roller to the left of the pinch roller.
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    Using the lens cloth, wipe out any other areas that appear dusty or dirty.
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    Insert your tape.
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    Rewind the tape to the start, then fast forward to the end. This will smooth out the tape and any wrinkles that occurred when the tape came out should go away. Rewind and fast forward until the tape plays smoothly.
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    Enjoy your music!
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Community Q&A

  • Question
    What is a suitable cleaning alcohol?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    You can use rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol, which can be found at your local drugstore.
  • Question
    What's wrong when I put a cassette in the deck and it won't close?
    Logan Adams
    Logan Adams
    Community Answer
    It may be in the wrong way. Check if there is something to hold the cassette.
  • Question
    I have a tape deck in my car that spits the tape back out. If cleaning doesn't work, does anyone have any other suggestions?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    You might have to check the condition of the injector/ejector mechanism, or the control servo may have become damaged or misaligned. If you can't fix it yourself, it might be just as cheap to find another tape player from eBay, or a local junkyard.
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Warnings

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References

  1. http://www.ehow.com/how_10507_maintain-cassette-deck.html - Research source.

About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 13 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 149,817 times.
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Co-authors: 13
Updated: August 4, 2021
Views: 149,817
Categories: Audio Systems
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