8-track player install

[JM in KY]

Has anybody added an 8-track player to their square? I inherited a bunch of my grandfather’s old tapes and I’d like to use them in my square body (just like he did when I was a kid)

Does the wiring usually have to be spliced in? Some kind of plug-and-play? Other things I should think about?

 

[Turbo4whl]

GM had a factory 8 track:

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Find them on ebay. This one has been serviced and had blue tooth added:

CLICK HERE

Cheaper ones available too. If your truck has a GM stereo, this is plug and play.

 

[bucket]

They were available as AM/8 tracks too. If you don't care about FM, it may be a much cheaper purchase.

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[Ricko1966]

If you find an aftermarket 8track player ( I have one but really want an old cassette super tuner or clarion fir project chevelle) anyway if your wiring hasn't already been hacked you can buy a pigtail,wires to an aftermarket stereo plugs into factory harness. I think one of the companies names is scosche. It's something like that. I'll look BRB

 

[SirRobyn0]

My Dad in his 78 GMC K20 had a AM/FM 8-track / CB combination radio. It was pretty cool in that you could have the radio or 8-track playing and the CB would break in, you could talk back and forth and then the radio would start back up automatically. No idea on wiring he bought it with that already installed.

 

[Ellie Niner]

I haven't messed around with 8-tracks since I was a kid, and it was my Grandmother who was rocking the player... I do remember hers being slightly cantankerous even then, and it was a bit like playing russian roulette when you inserted a tape into the player. About one out of 25 would make funny chipmunk noises right before crapping magnetic tape all over the place, rendering the tape dead. I don't think this is SOP, though.

One thing I would do if you haven't already, is check the condition of the foam pressure pads in the tape cartridges; these reside in the area directly where the tape goes over the playing head, and the foam tends to rot and crumble after this many years. The foam is available in precut pieces with adhesive, and there are quite a few videos on how to disassemble the carts and replace 'em. Also make sure your player is working and up to snuff. I've never been into an automotive tape deck, but I've had to replace drive belts and rubber capstan wheels in some of my vintage home audio stuff.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I do kinda miss the idiosyncrasies of endless-loop tape and the "CLACK-ITA-CHAK" of the player switching tracks... sometimes in the middle of a song. Maybe again someday...

 

[WP29P4A]

One more thing to consider, 25 years ago a client gave me a really nice reel to reel tape deck with 8 track built in, and a hand full of 8 track tapes. Because I live in Northern Nevada where the humidity is often quite low, 8 track and cassette tapes dry up and crumble when you put them in a player. So how the tapes were stored determines weather or not they will still work. Hate to see you go through all the effort to find and install the 8 track if you cant find tapes that will still play.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I haven't messed around with 8-tracks since I was a kid, and it was my Grandmother who was rocking the player... I do remember hers being slightly cantankerous even then, and it was a bit like playing russian roulette when you inserted a tape into the player. About one out of 25 would make funny chipmunk noises right before crapping magnetic tape all over the place, rendering the tape dead. I don't think this is SOP, though.

One thing I would do if you haven't already, is check the condition of the foam pressure pads in the tape cartridges; these reside in the area directly where the tape goes over the playing head, and the foam tends to rot and crumble after this many years. The foam is available in precut pieces with adhesive, and there are quite a few videos on how to disassemble the carts and replace 'em. Also make sure your player is working and up to snuff. I've never been into an automotive tape deck, but I've had to replace drive belts and rubber capstan wheels in some of my vintage home audio stuff.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I do kinda miss the idiosyncrasies of endless-loop tape and the "CLACK-ITA-CHAK" of the player switching tracks... sometimes in the middle of a song. Maybe again someday...

Yes this!

About 20 years ago I messed around with 8-tracks I was kind of trying to make it a fun hobby but there were two things that were working against me. One was the players. They'd be dirty as heck from years of not being used, and the heads would be out of alignment. I could never really figure out the proper way to adjust the head other than trial and error.

Then came the cartridges. Splicing a broken cartridge tape back together was easy using splice tape. At the time anyway you could get a generic foam pad that could be cut and glued on to the metal pressure spring. But I had to have a bunch cartridges to use for parts as well. It's very important that the roll of tape inside the cartridge has the proper tension. Often the tapes would be a little stretched, so you'd either need to re-roll the tape which let me tell you is a really blast, or hopefully the leader would be long enough and just cut a bit out of it to tighten it up.

Just like our squarebody truck 8-tracks are going to be for the most part 40 years old or older.

They are cool and if you have the time to mess with it, or the money to pay someone to overhaul your deck and buy already refurbished tapes, it certainly would add to the era of our trucks.

 

[skysurfer]

Nobody has mentioned yet how much space a collection of 8-tracks take up in your truck. People today can’t appreciate how easy it is to have thousands of songs at your fingertips compared to listening to the same 10 tapes over and over because they don’t have any more room to spare in the cab. Even after 45 years, there are songs I still can’t listen to because I had the tape and played it too many times because it was that or nothing. I’m all for nostalgia, but the 8-track era is one I don’t miss.

 

[CheemsK1500]

I never thought I'd see someone asking this question in the year 2023. However, vinyl records are still being produced, so its not too far fetched for someone to want to install an 8 track player.

I've also read about a sudden revived interest in the flatter cassette tapes that came after the 8 track. People argue that the cassettes tendency to degrade after extensive useage makes the music seem more "alive" since it can now "die."

 

[Turbo4whl]

I'm surprised no one mentioned 4 track tapes. They started about the same time as the 8 tracks but were short lived.

My first car, 1964 Plymouth came to me with no radio. For $20 used I bought a stand alone Motorola 8 track with a built in amp. Made to mount under the dash, my first mod, cut the dash hole and mounted it in the dash. Got a few years out of it until it quit I bought new, but discounted combo 4 track/ 8 track player.

The big difference how he two different tapes work was the 4 track cartridges had no roller. After you put in the 4 track, you moved a lever to lift the roller up into the cartridge. Since this was a combo unit the play head did not change tracks automatically. The unit had a knob to turn, to move playback head up and down.

This unit gave me the advantage of buying 4 track tapes now found in the bargain bin.

The original 8 track tapes sounded better than the early cassette tapes. Improvements to the cassettes finally pushed out the 8 tracks.

 

[SirRobyn0]

I'm surprised no one mentioned 4 track tapes. They started about the same time as the 8 tracks but were short lived.

My first car, 1964 Plymouth came to me with no radio. For $20 used I bought a stand alone Motorola 8 track with a built in amp. Made to mount under the dash, my first mod, cut the dash hole and mounted it in the dash. Got a few years out of it until it quit I bought new, but discounted combo 4 track/ 8 track player.

The big difference how he two different tapes work was the 4 track cartridges had no roller. After you put in the 4 track, you moved a lever to lift the roller up into the cartridge. Since this was a combo unit the play head did not change tracks automatically. The unit had a knob to turn, to move playback head up and down.

This unit gave me the advantage of buying 4 track tapes now found in the bargain bin.

The original 8 track tapes sounded better than the early cassette tapes. Improvements to the cassettes finally pushed out the 8 tracks.

That's like mentioning betamax when talking about video tape. Beta was more compact and better quality, but VHS became the standard....

 

[Turbo4whl]

That's like mentioning betamax when talking about video tape. Beta was more compact and better quality, but VHS became the standard....

The problem with Bata, it was proprietary by Sony. They would not share.

The reason the early casettes were not as good as the 8 tracks was the amount of recording time on the tape. The tape moved slower than the 8 tracks. This offered the 8 tracks more recording area over time. Any one remember in the old movies when they showed computers spinning the tape reels? They moved along much faster than any sound recording tapes. Some time later the improved recording methods brought the casettes ahead and passed the 8 tracks.

 

[CheemsK1500]

That's like mentioning betamax when talking about video tape. Beta was more compact and better quality, but VHS became the standard....

Fun fact: Sony actually continued to produce beta max cassettes until 2016.

 

[Raider L]

@JM in KY,
I have a Delco AM-FM 8 track combo but haven't installed it yet to see if it all works. I bought it off of Ebay and the seller said it all worked with no problems. If you get one of those the wiring is the same as far as power is concerned, the wires for powering your AM are the same, black, yellow, gray going into your plug in your radio, and if your wiring has the extra wires for sterio speakers even if it's just a left and right up front you won't need any additional wires to hook it up. There are plug-in's in the back of the radio/player for the speaker wires.
I used to go to estate sales some years ago, and occasionally I still hit one or two. I got on this kick of picking up 8 track tapes whenever I could find them, which wasn't very often. You have to look at them very carefully as for the condition, and even then they can look good but have the tape messed up inside. But I have a couple three dozen good condition tapes from the era.
Sometimes you can tell if the tape might be bad especially if the paper label is worn in certain ways that looks like it was put in and out of the player fifty million times and is worn nearly off. Don't even buy it if it looks worn at all. But if the label is in good condition you have a better chance of getting a good tape.
Just understand that a player can eat a good tape before you can even reach down and take the thing out. It can also be a bad tape to, the tape is to loose that will cause the tape to get hung in the drive wheels inside, so a lot of times it's not the player, it's the tape.
Cassette's were a bit easier to deal with if something went wrong. You needed a ordinary pencil and you could stick it in the drive cog you could see on the tape housing, and spin it in one direction, then the other and most times that would fix a tape that wouldn't play.