I have a Tascam TSR-8. It had been working fine until the other day when it just wouldn't play back. it kinda got stuck. Then today I started getting this weird horrible white noise/scratch/static sound when playing back what I recorded as well as some odd speed dips here and there.

I took the tape off the machine and moved the two tension rollers up to synthesize tape tension (to see if perhaps it was the heads that were the culprit). The noise was still there, thus ruling out the heads. It turns out that whenever the capstan motor is engaged this noise is happening. so I'm guessing that perhaps its a bad capstan motor? Would this be causing this weird scratching sound? It would certainly explain the odd lock-up and speed behaviors. Any help is greatly appreciated!