One of my two S-VHS recorders has this problem, an RCA VR695HF.
I press the eject button and I hear a mechanism kick in but the tape doesn't eject. Until a couple weeks ago, it usually ejected on the second press (the same sound happened both presses, but the second time the tape came out). A couple weeks ago I had to press it 40-50 times before the tape finally came out.
Some months ago I took the cover off and looked for something to adjust or lubricate but whatever I did didn't help (cleaned, a bit of lubrication here and there, blow compressed air, etc.). Using a different tape has no evident effect.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Dan