8 Track Tapes with Gummy Rollers

One of the problems that plagues the early 8 track tape cartridges is that the pinch rollers of some of the carts from certain manufacturers get gooey over the years. The normally hard rubber roller on these certain carts turns soft and extremely sticky with a tar like consistency. When the roller is gummy, it makes the cartridge unplayable and will ultimately make a huge mess if inserted into a player. It is possible to remove the gooey roller and replace it with another that will not deteriorate.

Tapes listed in 8 Track Shack’s online inventory with gummy rollers are replaced prior to shipment to the customers. This is a process that may take an extra ten minutes per tape, or it may take much longer, depending on the severity of the gumminess and mess associated with the melting roller on and/or in the cartridge.

Gummy rollers tapes also include the early Lear Jet pack tapes, which almost always have gummy rollers. The price of the tapes with gummy rollers is usually significantly higher than tapes without gummy rollers. The cost difference is based on two things, rarity and the pain-in-the-ass of having to repair the tapes prior to shipment. The tapes are more rare because these roller issues are found on the earliest 8 tracks, and because most people just threw the tapes out when the gumminess started to occur……so relatively few of these cartridge still exist.

Though we’ve had a number of customers over the years claim that they just love to fix these tapes and get all sticky and covered in black tar, most people have no desire to learn the technique to open these carts and replace the rollers, let alone dealing with the mess. If you are a hardcore 8 track lover and would just love delving into the tarry mess (or if you don’t plan on playing the tape, just adding it to your collection), we will gladly discount the price on gummy roller tapes.

The amount of discount depends on rarity and popularity of the title, but in all cases of tapes with gummy rollers, we will give significant discounts if you choose to forgo our pre-shipment refurbishing of the tape. If you are interested in receiving a discount and doing the repairs yourself, please contact customer service about pricing discounts.

It should be noted that many album titles on cartridges with gummy rollers were rereleased in cartridges that did not develop gummy rollers, so if you are looking for a title and don’t care whether it was an early Lear Jet or Ampex cartridge, be sue to check to see if we have the title in a later non-gummy roller cart….it will save you money and will save our repair department much frustration and time.

Click here ===> To see 8 Track Shack’s full list of Lear Jet pak tapes.

Click here ===> To see 8 Track Shack’s full list of tapes with gummy rollers.