Mechanical / Tape Eject issue
(a gear tooth needed re-alignment)

The top three gears - the leftmost gear to the center gear needed adjustment.
Note the "phillips screwdriver" end on the motor's drive shaft (left of all gears, just above the top-left ribbon cable) - handy to index the mechanism.

 

Tape drive motors (forward, rewind) visible on the right (black discs)

Sample / test tape

Main logic / IO / Power board

Top cover and screws (resized smaller)

Looking down onto the drive.  The large silver circle w/ black fins & red screw lock is the helical scan head - much like that which is in a VCR - for that fact most of the tape loading mechanism is the same as in a VCR.  The greenish wheel to the top left of the silver head is the head cleaning mechanism.  It is normally not touching the head but on occasion will be put into contact with the spinning head to wipe debris from the head.

Better view of the head - a bit of an angle.  The black fins act as a fan for cooling.

 

What it looks like put back together.