First of all, model. The original thread was about a Superbeta, all of which used the newer J loader rather than the U loader. Is that what you have ?

If what you say is correct, (not "true" because you have no reason to lie) that means a tape was forced out of there. the J loaders were quite fragile with the arms that wound the tape. They can get out of kilter and just need some friendly persuasion to get back in whack. Gears breaking was rare, and the really wild gears were metal, sheet metal but metal. However the would pop out their tracks and jam up. If a tape was jammed up and wouldn't let the tape out it might very well fail that way.

The way to tell a U loader from a J loader is that the J has two arms grabbing the tape when inserted, the U loader only has one. In a U loader it just goes around a circle like to get the tape around the head. It is important to know which you have. If you give up the model I might know which it is..

The gears are probably OK but they are out of whack. If you can get it here I can probably fix it and I DO have some parts in stock. However that might not be quite practical. I am in the US, Ohio, Cleveland. I worked on tons of these things.

Next best thing is if you got image hosting post some pictures. If I see exactly what state the mech is in I might be able to tell you what to do.

Model and pics. Best I can do. Without that you are ****ed. (or bring it or ship it)

Note that if it is not NTSC I cannot confirm correct color. I can confirm good video, the [presence of color, the AFM (sound) carriers and almost everything but I do not have a multirate monitor right now. I can fix the mech, but if it is not NTSC that's pretty much it.