Advice for tape drive repair / maintenance

[Al Kossow]

 > About 1/4 into the tape something started vibrating, quickly
 > escalating and before I could do anything, the tape stopped.  Result:
 > rubber goo on the plastic roller that drives the DC-600 cartridge
 > drive belt, some on the tape itself, and the tape shows deformation
 > (wavy) on the top half.  I had to toss it.

This is the classic failure mode for the rollers. Pressure/Temperature
causing breakdown of the rubber.

 > Any idea what could have caused this and how to prevent it?

There is no way to prevent it. The rubber had already decomposed, and 
the elevated temperature caused what was left of the bonds to change
state.

 > The other option is to remove the melted rubber roller and
 > steal the one from the Archive drive.

They aren't interchangeable. The only option you have is to find a newer
drive with a roller that hasn't decomposed (yet..). I know of no 
commercial source for just the rollers for either Archive or Wangtek.

Wangtek changed their roller design on later drives. Archive didn't, so
you may be able to find 150meg drives that are new enough to survive. 
The most common source are Sun external 150meg shoeboxes, which have 
been readily available in the past.