[Fidelity Fan]

It has not been previously mentioned, but the condition of the pinchroller should be checked. Remove it and hold it up against a straight surface in the light. If it is concave, IE daylight can be seen down the middle, replace it before making any adjustments.

A worn pinchroller will cause the tape not to run correctly past the ACE head, causing tracking and audio problems, as well as possible tape creasing on the guides.

Another common problem with this series of machines and the later 3V35 was the wearing away of the mini grooves on the lower drum. If reverse search was performed on a tape near to the beginning, the excessive friction between the tape and lower drum would cause the tape to stall. On a 3V35, the top edge of the tape would crease up on the the left guide.