Vintage Stereo stuff

[Steve Shauger]

[ QUOTE ]
So that's what the antennae contraption is supposed to look like! I had to make my own by getting the correct connector at Radio Shack and adding a wire to it. (Bought the unit off ebay and it had no antennae wire at all.)



Never thought it had such an involved antennae splice-harness. Got any more of those NOS contraptions lieing around?

[/ QUOTE ]

Steve,

If you haven't found the correct cable and connector by now, let me know I will send you a whole FM Converter unit. Just PM me your address

[njsteve]

PM on its way!

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Well, I received this Lear Jet unit - what the heck makes this thing so heavy??? I don't know where I'm gonna mount it, it's too big for the glove box, and I'm not putting any holes through my rubber mat... I'll figure it out.

My question for you old timers, what is up with these 'programs' on the tapes and lights on the unit? What is 'mpx'?

[njsteve]

What do ya mean "Old Timers?" An 8-track has four separate tracks (programs) of music on it. You press the track button to move it from one track to the next to locate the song you want (in your case, something from Shawn Cassidy or Leif Garrett, I bet). The machine will also automatically change tracks when it reaches the end of one. The drawback to this advanced technology was that sometimes the track ends in the middle of a song and you have to wait for it to click to the next track to hear the rest of the song. MPX stands for multiplex, a prehistoric stereo configuration.

Now where's my bottle of Vitameatavegamin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBcdRDB14e0

[COPO 70 RS/Z28]

Steve,

I also remember that the head would get out of adjustment and start to play 2 tracks at once. There should be a head adjustment screw somewhere that would realign the head. As I recall this adjusting was a regular event???

[njsteve]

That's one of the reasons they invented matchbooks. (Well, the other reason was for gapping the points in your distributor on the side of the road at night)

[COPO 70 RS/Z28]

I forgot all about the matchbook trick!!!!!!!!!!

[ORIGLS6]

Steve nailed it. Each of the four 'programs' on the tape has two tracks, hence the term 'Eight Track'. The two tracks on each program give the stereo effect. If you catch a tape just right in its rewind configuration you can see a short section of metallic splicing tape which trips the sensors in the player head and moves the head up or down to the next program.

Find a junk tape and pop it apart sometime. The rewind system on them is kinda cool. "Back in the day" I used to salvage damaged tapes from some of my friends and rewind them. Many times they're still good even after the player 'eats them'.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Ah! I see, very pre-historic! I'm gonna hook it up to the car battery and pop a tape in it. It does have two adj screws, one for the head - forget what the other one was for. Hmmm... this thing will kill my et's is so stinkin heavy. I need some quick disconnects.

Oh, this thing only has 4 wires out the back - did these old units just ground the speakers at their location or...?

[Verne_Frantz]

Geeeesz, you're young Marlin...........

At least you got the top of the line model of the day. The Lears were great!