The cassette deck of my Delco model 16129923 AM/FM/Cassette deck plays way too fast. Interestingly, last fall it played too slow, this year it plays too fast. Also, the auto-reverse mechanism was not working properly (tape did not change direction when I pushed the button to change from side A to side B), but that problem seems to have gone away now that I just replaced the drive belt. Yes, I obtained and installed an exact match for the belt. The new one seems just a little tighter than the old one, so it's not like the old one was completely shot. I had hoped replacing the belt would also solve my tape speed problem, but no such luck, although the tape isn't playing quite as fast as before.

Someone on another site said the problem might be that the slide plate that moves the tape head into the cassette might need lubricated. I guess that will be the thing I attempt next, if I can figure out how to get at the slide plate to lubricate it with a few drops of machine oil. Or, I was told, the problem might be with the electronic motor speed control circuit (if this deck even has one of those), in which case I would not be able to do the repair myself.

I'm quite proud of myself for getting the darned thing out of the dash, and then removing the cassette mechanism from the housing. I'm no electronics expert by any means, just a do-it-yourselfer who doesn't think I should have to pay $85/hour to repair a 13-year-old cassette deck!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.