Bob,
The tape path adjustment is as JJ discribed and without the "adjustment
remote commander" and a scope you won't be able to perform the
adjustment. I have the manual for the TR88,98 and 99 and the adjustment
procedures are pretty similar in all the manuals I've seen. They are
contained in "Tape Path Adjustment" of the "8mm Video Mechanism Section
Adjustment Manual VII [B Mechanism]'. I think the "A" was the one that
ejected out the back. This was a seperate manual that Sony put out to
cover these mechanisms. In my experience I've only seen it at Joseph
electronics in Niles, Il. and when I worked at Helix, Ltd, Chicago.
However as JJ suggested you can check the tape guides listed as TG-2
and TG-3 in my manual. Sometimes only one of these has gotten loose and
you can fly it in while playing a tape that you want to recover. Be
careful it's a good way to mess up a tape.
As to the fish caps you can search this forum for many discussions of
this problem. Usually if you're having this problem you've got video
problems as the CCD-TRxx cameras that I've looked at have those bad
caps only on the video boards on the back of the lens. I have never
seen them on the controller boards for the player/recorder. ESR meters
are great for this.
Richard