Glad you spotted the dirty back tension pad, I did see it earlier, but I thought not to mention it. They can get quite 'sticky' and create extra wow/flutter towards the end of the tape.

If I may mention the motor controller board - I rescued a long dead TC-K75, and seemingly one of the developed faults was that the motor controller board shorted to earth. So I later isolated this so that the solder side could never touch the chasis.

To restore the felt, you can try using a wire brush.

I had the same sticky idler @1:01:00

Great video, plenty of detail if I need something done on my K65. Where did you get the torque gauge? those are wickedly expensive on ebay..

Those felt disks can be purchased in kit form from the usual suspects, look for something like "felt washer for VCR repair" or something close. A wire brush can also restore them sometimes. CA was the right choice for the overmolded plastic parts that Sony is so fond of, JB weld is formulated for metal repairs and doesn't wet out plastic very well at all. Another good choice is Acrylic cement assuming, of course, it's Acrylic. Did you ever get your tape back, and why is shipping from US to Canada so outrageously expensive all of a sudden?

Felts: I tend to wash them, and allow to dry. In other words - degrease. :o)

plastic crap

Another very interesting video!