John,

> Question 1.  Has anyone heard of the coating on the capstan turning sticky
>  and gooey and coming off onto a tape?

Let me say that I have never heard of anyone with more problems than you have
right at the moment, with perhaps the obvious exception of Bill Clinton and
his tapes.

However, let me address the gooiness. Almost certainly, it isn't coming from
the capstan itself, but from an aging, congealing lubricant that is on some
brands of tape. If these "lubricated" tapes aren't thrown out every so often,
the stuff just gets increasingly sticky over a period of months or years, and
some of that congealed goo will come off onto every surface it touches as it
passes through the tape drive -- and will create the catastrophic problems
that you describe.

Ten to fifteen years ago, tapes weren't commonly lubricated, thus they had a
real tendency to severely abrade the tape heads. Putting lubricant on the tape
helped to greatly decrease the amount of head wear, but it also creates its
own problems.

I realize that this information isn't going to do you much good now, but it
would probably be worth your time to throughly clean every capstan, roller and
head surface in both tape drives before you run another tape through either of
them.

Wirt Atmar