Sony SLV-X817 VCR takeup guide roller loose?
 

While attempting to help a VHS cassette eject, I nudged a small piece of metal out of the way of the underside of the takeup guide roller rail (presumably part of the guide roller assembly).

With minimal force, the metal part clicked/retracted out of view, loosening the takeup guide roller. I didn't feel anything breaking.

I pushed the takeup guide roller and saw that it could now move freely across the length of the rail, not locking at the start or end as it used to, and not being guided by the VCR when a cassette was loaded.

So, I did get my cassette back, but now the VCR can't pull tape over the head anymore. I botched it :smack:

How can I go about diagnosing and repairing this?

Never force a cassette out of the machine. Damage to cassette and/or machine is likely. Technicians have ways of removing cassettes without damage to either cassette or machine.

A picture of the part(s) would help!

epoxy glue is your friend but by the sound of your tell, i feel a mechanic disassemble to reach the part that broke underneath will be required.

Turns out I was lucky and my nudging only pushed the roller guide arm off the roller guide. It was already in tension, hence the disappearing act. I managed to disassemble the whole unit, flipped it upside down, and reattached the arm to the roller guide.

Something I noticed after fixing the issue, was that the roller guide was very wobbly. I don't remember if it used to be like this. Probably not, since my VHS-C tracking became abysmal, which was not the case before my tinkering.

I had to manually fix the tracking, playback works like a charm now.:congrats:

I also took the opportunity to clean the head with 97+ ISO. I found that lens cleaning swabs work like a charm for cleaning video heads, no snagging at all, no damage. All in all, a very finnicky 6-head Sony VCR, I must say.