How to Repair Cassettes

With patience, manual dexterity, and a lifetime expenditure of less than $10, you can repair broken cassettes.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Radio Shack Cassette Repair Kit
• Cassette Tape Editing/splicing Block
• Single-edged Razor Blades
• Editing/splicing Tape
• jeweler’s Phillips-head screwdriver

1. Remove the five screws from top half of cassette shell. If the cassette shell halves are glued together, very carefully split the shell with a Phillips-head screwdriver. Maneuver the screwdriver around the shell to break its seal. Avoid getting cut or damaging internal components of cassette.

2. Carefully lift off the top half of the cassette shell.

3. Pull undamaged tape from the left reel. Handle tape as little as possible.

4. Position tape in the groove of a splicing block.

5. Close clamps over the tape.

6. Cut along the angled slot in the splicing block with a demagnetized single-edged razor blade or X-Acto knife.

7. Remove tape from the splicing block.

8. Pull undamaged tape from the right reel. Repeat Steps 4 to 6.

9. Place tape from left reel in the splicing block, so that the ends of tape meet in middle.

10. Cut a 1/2-inch strip of editing tape. Place where tape ends meet. Smooth with back end of a pen.

11. Position the tape on the bottom half of the cassette shell. Carefully wind tape around the stationary plastic pin and roller on each side. Position tape between pressure pad and front "teeth" of cassette shell.

12. Place the filmy sheet over tape with dull side facing down.

13. Carefully position top half of cassette shell on bottom half. Make sure you don't pinch tape between two halves of shell.

14. Screw or tape shell halves together.

15. Manually rewind tape several inches before testing.

Tips & Warnings

• If original shell is poor quality or broken, put tape in a new housing. Get a Radio Shack cassette repair kit (catalog #: 44-626) for $1.49 or use a shell from a free cassette or an unwanted cassette (discard the tape). You can also find free promotional tapes in music stores.
• If you are unable to repair a tape that was sold as a high-quality blank tape, you might be able to send it to the manufacturer for replacement.

[moonray]

on 8/26/2009 The right reel on my cassette tape stops spinning while the left reel keeps spinning causing the tape to spool out before stopping. What causes the sticking and what can i do about it?

[nomader]

on 3/9/2008 Thanks for the article. May I suggest adding some photos?

[chelli]

on 11/28/2007 is there anyplace else you can find the cassette repair kit

[HaleKD]

on 3/25/2007 Sadly, Radio Shack no longer sells their excellent cassette repair kit. When you enter the number 44-626 in their search engine, it brings up a the set of directions that was included with the kit.