Charley recommended this gentleman to me last year.I know at the time,he was getting ready to move,so his address may have changed since last winter.I never sent anything to him then,but I do plan to this coming winter.
Here is the tail end of my correspondence with him,as you may glean some useful tips from it.He came across as being very genuine,knowledgeable and friendly to me.
.."Hello Rick,not really a problem to fix those six 1970 AM/FM 8tks you have.I have 8 track belts and stuff on hand.The only bad thing on the 70-74 8 tracks is the motor. They will usually play for 10 minutes and then start jerking.There is no way to fix it and no one has good motors.I try and buy every 75-76 one I can find as they have a electronically controlled motor as opposed to the mechanical governor in the older ones.I actually have a guys 70 8tk radio just like yours sitting on my bench waiting to find one.They are drying up and haven't seen one for a long time,so aside from that I think can make em play as new for you.Who knows,your motors sound like their ok.When you send them,pack em REALLY good.They are heavy radios and when dropped the volume control shafts get broken,so put a lot of padding on the face of it.
I charge $60/hr.I will replace all the electrontic caps and what ever else is wrong.Since your's sound like they don't need any cosmetic stuff I would guess $150-200 at the most each.Everything warrantied for 6 months except the motor. Let me know if interested.Turn around time is 1-2 weeks as I like to let them play for a few days on the bench"...
Regards,
Richard Foehringer
3300 Diablo trail
El Dorado Hills, Calif. 95762
email
[email protected]