Hi guys, my brother recently got an 87 Regal with the original Delco Radio and we wanted to play the cassettes that we had, problem is it wont eject. Is there an easy way to do this or are we going to have to pull the dash and radio out?

 

Sometimes you can help it along with a small screw driver to lift it and get it to eject. Other times you have to remove the radio from the dash and take it apart to remove it.

 

What Eric said or needle nose pliers or tweezers, sometimes if you can get a little bite on the cassette and jiggle it around it will come out

 

Man if I had a dime for every time I had to dig a cassette out of the slot in the 80's and 90's, I'd be a rich guy. It seems that almost every cassette player would eat my favorite cassettes form time to time. The advice above is pretty much it. wiggle until it lets loose and hope it didn't eat the tape in the jamb. ~BOB

 

8 tracks were worse, they'd eat tape like spaghetti. Then you had to listen to the track change in the middle of a song.

 

I LOLd the other day when I saw a brown streaming mess by the side of the road, can't be sure but it looked like the All to common in the 80s scene of an unraveled cassette tape....haven't seen that in a while!

 

 

I prefer the bfh, works from everything to removing cassettes to changing watch batteries....

 

If the cassette lifts up but won't pop out it may just be a bit distorted. The plastic of the cassette can deform, swell, twist or in any other way distort when they get hot. This can cause it to get stuck in the stereo. A small pair of needle nose pliers, forceps, or tweezers may be enough to pull it out.

On the other hand, if it will not even lift up, the tape is more than likely wrapped around the capstan of the mechanism. This usually happens inside the cassette housing so it will not lift up and off the player mechanism. There are two ways to deal with this. Brute force it with some sort of lever to lift the cassette which will destroy the tape. Or take it apart. I used a long screwdriver with a very thin shaft to slip under the cassette and gently force it up and out. Once the cassette is out, you can use a small dental style pick to remove the tape from the mechanism. Use a bright light and make sure you get it ALL! Then use long stem Q-Tips and alcohol to clean all the residue off the rubber pinch rollers and the steel capstans. Don't flood the mechanism with alcohol because that will flush the lubrication out of the bushings and require a full overhaul of the cassette deck. It will more than likely need new belts just to get it working again.