M is for Money

Today I saved myself $10. I drive an old school Volvo,  so I have to use an iPod Cassette player. Usually these run about $10-$15 bucks and need to be replaced every 6 months or so. I always figured it was the wiring in the cords that was killing the tapes. At the end of a tape's life, it will stop or skip. It thinks the tape has reached the end of the side and will act as if you need to flip the tape. Stupid iPod Cassette. Today I decided to open the tape up and see if there was another problem. Here are the 6 easy steps I used to fix my iPod Casette.

1. Unscrew both the back and the front.
2.  Open the cassette carefully, if you tear it open the gears will fly out everywhere.
3. Remove the gear that is attached to a rubber washer.
4. This gear should slid up and down, look for a little stick near the bottom of the rubber washer's "track".
5. BREAK the little stick.
6. Put everything back together and enjoy music!

Note: I assume the cassette player pushes the rubber washer down when it thinks the tape has reached the end, at which point the gear on the rubber washer jams on the stick. Thus the tape stops spinning. Although ludicrous to do to a real tape, iPod tapes are not meant to be flipped.