Chosen Solution
Is that garbled sound, that you are discribing, like if you sing a not and lightly punch yourself in the chest? Because that’s the problem that I have with my deck. I ordered Awesome Mix tapes from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy (meaning they are new) and when I play them on my walkman they sound fine, but when I play them on my Sony TC-K370 the sound is as I described… Is the problem in the belts? Or the little wheel?
The belt probably needs replacing. Try cleaning the heads, capstan, and pinch roller. If it’s been sitting for a long time in an attic, it’s probably dirty and oxidized. This video shows you how to clean a tape deck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2LQr63X… Here’s the service manual: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/101242…
