[ruggb66]

Thank you all for your help. This thing has been a total PITA. There were MANY things wrong with it. Every time I fixed something, another problem showed up.

One of them may have been bad tape, as cleaning heads multiple times made some things better. I have no clue as to what mfg tape it is.

At this point both record and playback appear to be working on both channels.

I have the RIFAs on order, and hopefully, that is a simple changeout and nothing else rears its ugly head and I won't have to come back for more advice.

Thanks all.