Any tips for troubleshooting reel to reel recorder?

[E-money]

I found an Akai X-330D reel to reel in the trash the other day. Physically in pretty good shape, powers up and passes signal from the line inputs and mic inputs to the line outputs, heads look pretty good.
It doesn't appear to record, or maybe it's recording but the playback doesn't work. I don't have any prerecorded material on reel to check this with, just a blank reel of Radio Shack tape.

It looks like this was a fairly decent consumer deck back in the '70s, I wouldn't mind adding it to my studio for occasional tape compression effect, any tips?

 

[NewYorkDave]

Step one: find a tape with some audio on it.

If there's nothing available locally you can probably pick up a Mitch Miller tape on evilBay for a buck.

Actually, if you notice more hiss in playback with the tape moving past the heads than stopped, that tells you that the playback is working to some extent. Ya might have to crank the output a bit to be able to hear it--careful with your ears!

 

[Mike Keith]

There are a lot of older 1/4" machines around, some are very good and used very little. Pots and switches are noisy, and belts are worn.
But transports are pretty straight forward, can spend alot of time getting them up to speed...