Was an 8 track ever a factory option? One of my buddies was asking me and the more I thought about the cooler it sounded.
I don't know but I would luv to have one in my car.if anyone has a good one out there along with some good seventies tapes i'd luv to get it from you.and that's AFTER kboldin gets his if he wants one.(don't want to step on any feet lol)
They were common in most of the mid/late 70s models, pop had one in a '79 Cougar & I have one around here somewhere from around '76 if memory isn't failing me... Should be able to use a Mav/Comet '73-'77 face plate to match in about any year model... I wouldn't take any bets on that one, after 35-40 years the mechanics of these units is questionable at best....Just ask anyone that ever owned a 8 Track, probably 97% will tell you they weren't that great even when new(the other 3% were too stoned to care)... If I get a chance in the next couple weeks I'll check out the one I have but I don't think it works...
Jim (countangman) found a 8 track recorder and a bunch of blank tapes. He records the blanks with his favorite music to have in his cars...
see that's why I read this even when I don't need anything. that is a great idea jim had. and yes they were bad for breaking down but so were our cars! lol we still use them don't we:bananaman I think it would be cool to have one. it was the first thing I bought extra on my first car (67 couger 6.5 390 gt 450.00 bucks those were the days!) when I was 17 then one of those little amps(equalizers) they sold.as I recall it sounded fantastic! lol I would like to put one in my car just for the memories if nothing else but I do want it to work.
I remember the belts breaking even when fairly new! Tape hopelessly wrapped up in the drive was another problem. No, sorry folks, I don't miss 8 tracks one bit!
Every time you'd pull up to a red light, there would be tape, or the entire tape laying on the medium.....on a side note:My grandmother once bought me a whole bunch of 8 track tapes, thinking they were Atari games, I didn't have the heart to tell her what they really were, but the played awesome in my old Buick.
Yeah I'd about forgot about the tape streamers waving in the breeze... No one has mentioned cross talk, that happened when the head was out of alignment and played four tracks at once(normally two played to produce R & L channels)... My first one actually had a tracking adj and that was rare for most, but it got so hot after playing 30-45 minutes it'd stretch the tape... Tapes were cause for most of the issues, the original Lear Jet cartridges were usually the best, those used a rubber roller & small spring arms with felt pads that pressed the tape against the head(the roller can turn to goo after two or three decades, watch out for that problem)... The cheap ones had a piece of foam rubber that deteriorated(more goo) and many had hard plastic rollers that couldn't adequately grip the capstan shaft, often causing slippage and the tape dragged... Also the tape splice at the end/beginning of the tape often came apart, or the foil fell off so the tape wouldn't automatically change tracks at the end of the tape... On a positive note I still have a Radio Shack home deck from about '73 that is also a recorder and it still works fine(well after you hit the record/play switch with a couple shots of contact cleaner)... It even has the original belt...
I have an am/fm/8 track player in my '69 XR7 conv, along with approx. 300 8 track tapes. I also have the 8 track player and recorder which will transpose modern music to 8 tracks like Ken said. Talk about retro, lol!! 8 tracks will be coming back and are are a good investment. Just my opinion, lol. Jim
I remember the 8 track player "eating" the tapes We have a bridge that goes over the Susquehanna River so I used to hang onto the tapes until I would cross over the bridge and I would heave them out the window and over the side - the tape used to glisten in the lights as they were heading down to Davey Jones locker
My '69.5 had an 8 track in it. I actually went through the trouble to put a new belt in it and clean the head, lube the mechanism inside it. My mom still has her records and 8 tracks she bought back in the day. I went though and found a black sabbath, the cars, and led zepplin and rolled around for a couple of months having fun with it. This was in early 2006 and I was in my last semester of high school, so most people I knew at the time were 16-19 years old, so it was no doubt a novel and fun thing to play with. But definitely enjoy the bluetooth head unit I have in my '72 that streams wirelessly from my cell phone.. lol
