Cassette player plays tapes slowly

[djshott]

I have the 5 band EQ cassette, and it’s playing cassettes slowly. Not terribly slow, but noticeable. Do these units use belts? I have an extra non-working unit that I opened up to practice on for repair, but I couldn’t see a belt in there anywhere.

Another thread mentioned that the motor speed is adjustable, but if there’s a belt, how would I be able to tell if the issue is the belt or the motor speed?

Bonus question: if it’s just the motor speed, why would that change over time?

 

[GoToGuy]

Best guess, get a Delco audio service manual. Or one of the big Audio mail order repair outfits can repair, refurbish, mod your stock radio for external input jack and add Bluetooth. If you search can probably find it easy.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

There are belts inside of it, not that I've ever replaced any. In my case, I made one from the parts of several. Best guess is that there's a bit of grease in the motor which has dried up or something which spins isn't spinning so much any more and causing things to slow down. Unless you're playing chrome tapes, they're chit anyway. Don't know why I even bothered to make mine work. Haven't played a tape since I did, so I doubt it works correctly now. I'd follow GtG's advice.