Betamax Capture -Is this dirty heads?

[Des]

A modicum of success!
Tape successfully loaded, loading carriage sits a little high on the left side, but can be nudged. The tape has 'ejected' but chooses to not come out I powered it down and will try to figure out why later tonight.
Still haven't attached the errant gear. (BTW I reversed the high and low sides of the gear in the diagram above).
My friend suggests epoxying it.

Ran a few minutes of The Labyrinth which was recorded from cable TV on Beta3 mode in the early 90s.
Here's a snapshot:


I attached video too. The lines settle down as I keep some downward pressure on the left side of the tape, but also the tape itself seems rather worn and abused.
The capture was done as DV_AVI but I converted to MPG to save space for this post. There is no audio because my 1/8" to RCA adapter fell apart in my hand so I need to make a trip to Radioshack.

Thanks for watching!
Tomorrow I hope to be able to spend a good part of the day with this machine. I feel encouraged

--dES

[oldfart13]

Yeah, definitely looks like loading gear/guide problems. Used to have to deal with that on some of my oldest (now retired) decks. I use 2 now, a mint condition 860D and my old workhorse SL-2700. You might also try to take the tape out of that shell and put it into another one. It could be something wrong with the mechanism that is causing the tape to stick or ride high. I have had to do this with some older tapes on occasion. Might be worth a shot. Or find another Beta deck. Phone up TV stations or repair shops as they can tell you or as was stated, try a professional transfer company. Usually they can do the job and have experience with difficult transfer scenarios. Good luck...

[Des]

FINALLY!!!!!!
Had the time to play with the SL-2500 Betamax player.
Carefully cleaned, aligned and relubed all the gears in loading mechanism.
Made an appropriate pin out of a finishing nail and then used epoxy on the gear, shaft and pin.
Got is working well! Am now doing the tapes with it for my client from back in November. They're surprising cool about the time frame. At this point they are just curious. We're just doing a straight to digital transfer. Minimal clean up. It's more for memories than anything else.
Their own SL-2000 is still not right, but that is not a concern to them.

Here's a clip Not bad for a 31 year old tape on 31 year old equipment:
https://forum.videohelp.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23786&stc=1&d=1393518597

Thanks all for your earlier help and suggestions and encouragement. As always it is greatly appreciated

--dES