I am having problems with my RCA VR502 VCR is not "tracking" right.
It normally does it automatically when I sticked the tape in to play
it. I cannot even use the manual tracking to get the video straightened
out! Funny thing is, when I fast-forward or reverse the video, then
the picture straighten out correctly.

Clarify, please.

When you say "straighten out," you mean when any "snow" in the picture is gone?

When you fast-forward or reverse, do you mean you have a picture only when you
go into those visual search modes or does it come back and then go away when
you get the deck into playback mode again?

The only two possibilities I can think of is that your VCR either requires a
complete cleaning of the tape path (NO cleaning tapes) or that the useful life
of the video heads have come to an end. - Reinhart