Thanks for your input. After taking the case off and removing the door housing for the cassette, the tape was so badly mangled around the rollers that the eject feature was useless.. Finally I figured out that the only way to disengage was to also remove the " metal cassette housing and then gently and then not so gently push and pry. This process went on for about 30 minutes. Mind you if this was just a "regular" tape I would have just cracked it out but the tape inside was something that I had recorded nearly 40 years ago so I wanted to save it if possible. Finally there was a snap and pop ( no crackle) and the cassette was released.. There was a break in the tape on both sides of the spools as well as in the middle where it was caught. I carefully unraveled the spaghetti and placed it on a table to deal with after I cleaned and put the CR-3A back together. The little "metal cage" seated on the playback heads had also come loose. I cleaned the heads, rollers capstans etc. I then slightly crimped by hand the metal cage and placed it back on the playback head. I re-seated the release plunger for the door and then put together both arms and screwed the metal housing back together. I f you ever go through this there is a bit of adjusting for that right fit. I then tested the operation with a blank tape and everything seemed to work fine. Amazingly, I didn't have any leftover screws!!! I was also impressed on how clean the insides of this 23 year old machine was. It certainly paid off keeping it in a clean environment over the years. I also have a greater appreciation of how well these Nakamichi's were built. Even if later on down the road this CR3A had to be serviced, it would be worth the investment..... Oh, as for the tape, since I didn't have a splicing block I had to work a temporary fix with regular tape and scissors, 4 makeshift splices later I was able to salvage the tape...
