I can understand that; it's supply and demand, and the Craig market seems to be hot right now. Ahh, for back in the day when TK826 and I would bid up a S601 to $10 before waiting for the next one. Hopefully your unit will be fully working, but if not this seems to be a good place to copy from BBC how I got mine repaired. Lord Vadus also has some posts about him working on 8-tracks.
From:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/9495-8-track-player-questions-and-answers/page__st__60#entry117084---------------------------------------------
Here:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/8327-theres-a-new-marin-county-sheriff-in-town/page__view__findpost__p__108841I posted how I found a Craig S601 on e-bay. It didn't cost much, but it sure was in bad shape. It wouldn't clamp an 8-track, it wouldn't play the radio. Even the antenna lead was cut.
My best resource for a repair shop was Hemmings classifieds:
www.hemmings.com/classifieds/then click on services, then radios. There were 60 or business listed. I narrowed down the list to those that handled 8-tracks, then started calling.
It took a while to find an outfit that felt comfortable working on a foreign 8-track player, but then I found Larry.
www.hemmings.com/classifieds/servicesoffered/unspecified/unspecified/1192773.html> RADIO geezers since 1968, original parts and techniques, foreign and domestic, 1930
> to 2010 with iPod/aux or MP3 input option, Wonderbar, Town & Country, 4/8-track
> to factory Nav/DVD systems, etc, please phone or email for details before shipping
> your radio. Rays Auto Stereo, 1925 F St, Sacramento, CA, 95811; PH: 916-447-9753;
> or ldtheradiogeezer@gmail.com; or raysautostereo.com
Let me tell you, if you need any radio 8-track repair work done, give him a shout. Our first conversations were funny. Went I sent in my Craig, he wrote back telling me all the reasons why I should pick something else - anything else rather than trying to repair this hunk of junk. But then I sent him screen shots and told him my bluesmobile plan, and he was fully on-board. He made it his mission to get this thing fixed!
Here's a list of some of the bad parts:
ICBA amplifier
cartridge clamper for the 8 track
balance control wiper and slider
AM tuner
two of the LEDs that indicate which track on the 8-track
One of the most challenging efforts (it seems) was the rebuild of the clamping mechanism. Craig apparently went all out, and made a super clamper with tons of parts that Larry had to refabricate. When you put a cartridge into the Craig unpowered, it won't clamp the cartridge (unlike all other 8-tracks I've seen). Its because there's an electromagnet that clamps the cartridge only when power is on (when you turn off power to the Craig, it automatically ejects the cartridge).
I told Larry to put my rebuild at the bottom of his priority list (and charge me accordingly), so he worked on it here and there and now its back home, playing TK826's Sam & Dave tape
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/fan-artwork/7526-sam-dave-8-track.htmlon my floor testbed:
I have it setup so that the speaker-output runs through a converter to produce line-level output to run to the secret audio system I plan on using:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/bluesmobiles/10831-sound-system.html#post113437There was discussion earlier about presets on the Craig. Here's a pic:
showing that the Craig S601 doesn't have presets. If you want to select a radio station, you must manually rotate the tuning knob. The buttons that look like they'd be for presets are for other things.
And to change between tracks on the 8-track, push the volume knob. Thanks, Larry!
your friend in great service,
arthur
