I have replaced the 2 belts today with replacements from ebay. I’m sure this isn’t the only thing that needs to be done to make it mechanically sound but I think I made progress somewhat? But holy mama! It might look easy changing out those belts but it was a real pain in the rump just to make those belts go around the motor in their places! The dried up lubricant from 1976 needs to go! Where would I look for that spring you mentioned so I can see if it is there?
The 76H is a 1976 date code possibly?
Eh – I’m afraid this is getting a bit outside my wheelhouse; like I said, intricate mechanics isn’t my forte. 
What I posted above came from examining the schematics in the service manual; I’ve never actually worked on the innards of an EL-5 deck personally. (My deck is an EL-7, which has a different mechanism since it has individual drive motors for the hubs and the capstan rather than the single-motor-and-belts system of the EL-5.)
Kind of odd that you say there’s strong torque on the take-up hub in “play” mode, but not in “fast forward” mode, though. Looking at the schematic again, there’s a third solenoid, PM1, which apparently controls a “shifter” mechanism and which is energized during play, but not during fast-forward or rewind. Possibly that has something to do with it as well – but like I said, once we get outside of the actual electronics and into all of those fiddly little levers and springs and whatnot, we’re kind of getting out of my field of expertise and I’m just making a semi-educated guess. 
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Well hopefully I can get the Mic level and Phones Level off without a drill. But yeah anything beyond cleaning up the old dried grease is beyond my skill set and is better in the hands of a professional. The reason I chose the EL-5 compared to the EL-7, well the EL-5 was $445 as opposed to an EL-7 for $2000. It was a no brainer for me.
EDIT: Ok I ordered a better set of Hex screwdrivers to hopefully get the screws out with out resorting to drilling…I also might order some JIS screwdrivers as well.
Heh, yeah, a fully-shopped-and-refurbished EL-7 goes for quite a bit these days. (As will the Teac AL-700 or Technics RS-7500 Elcaset decks, but that’s as much due to their rarity as anything else, I think.) I suppose I was fortunate to get mine when I did – when I got mine, EL-7s were only going for $600 to $700 on eBay, and EL-5s were around $400 or so. (Blank tapes were going for a lot less back then, as well; certainly nothing like the $40 apiece they’re commanding nowadays!)
I took another look at your prior post, BTW – I hadn’t noticed that the third image of the solenoids was a video and not a still image – and it does seem as though one of the solenoids, the one on the bottom, is never actuating. I can’t be certain, though, since I don’t know what modes you were putting the machine in – next time, it might help if you would say on the video “play… stop… rewind…” etc. when you activate each mode so we can tell what we’re supposed to be looking at. 
I may make another videos of those Solenoids. The third one does move but doesn’t do much due to old grease. Which leads me into why my part of the project had to be stopped.
We were able to drill out the Mic Level knob but it involved ruining the knob and a bit of the shaft the knob was on. I’m sure the hole can be epoxied and a new screw can go in its place but here’s the results after the drilling…
Unfortunately even with the new screwdriver set, it would not unscrew and to avoid another home drilling we decided to throw in the towel and just let my repairman do it. In those immortal words of Kenny Rodgers: You gotta know when to hold ‘em, Know when to fold em”
So this project will be put on hold. Until it reaches a professional. Sorry guys. I did what I could with what I have. 
Maybe I’ll make a video of this thing At least playing a tape but I’ll won’t be able to rewind or Fast forward. 
Welp. I can say for now I got some good news. I can’t rewind or fast forward an Elcaset…
But I can play and record one one just fine!
The tape showed up in the mail had a recording from a Canadian radio station of some choir singing. And I must have done something right the previous owner must have something wrong because both left and right channels worked perfectly! So that was a pleasant surprise! So it isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be!
I also was able to record my voice on both the left and right channel and it turned out fine but the mic itself is kinda staticky. (radio shack mic from the 80s)
Anyway I made a short video of it playing the tape. Yes it’s kinda squeaky.
That squeaking can be a sign of the gummed-up lubrication in the cassette shell that I described earlier, so I’d suggest you break out the jeweler’s screwdrivers to get the shell open, and the cotton swabs and 91% isopropyl to clean it out.
Good to hear that the deck is actually recording and playing correctly, though! It’s always a pleasant surprise when a piece of vintage gear turns out to have fewer problems than originally advertised, isn’t it.
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I have returned to say I finally got my Bell O Matic Tape cartridge machine up and running! Some of you might have seen the RCA versions of this format. Bell was a competitor to RCA and had their own machines that played and Record on this ancestor of a cassette!
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