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8-tracks heads?...

More likely, dummy heads are used so that the positioning of the cartridge tape, and the cartridge itself, are more consistent.
 
You mean "THREE-Track Heads"? Playback-only machines often used a dummy head to maintain tape path stability. They probably have no windings inside them.

(From the title, I though you were asking about actual eight-track, or 1/8-track heads, like the old cartridges for home. I've got tons of archive and personal stuff recorded on them, and hope to dub them off one day).
 
Exactly. On some machines, you would find a head that was merely a shell, that is, no recording coil, no pins. These would go in the first position, where the record head would sit, in order to guide the tape properly to the playback head.

As time wore on, this head would be grooved, so it would not be unusual to find a worn (but not grooved) playback head moved into this position when a new head was installed in the playback position.

Would be unusual to find an eight track head, since they were designed differently than cart machine heads. But I suppose it would kind of work. Typical cart machine head is either 2 track or 3 track (stereo plus cue track). All work in conjunction with the guides to insure proper tracking across the playback head, critical for stereo, since the tape carts have very little tracking guidance.
 
I have lots of cart machines (ITC's, Sonifex's, BE) none of them have dummy heads like the Harris I own. I have a 8 track player and the "tracks" on the playback head are similar to the Harrys dummy ones... There are pins on the back, like an 8-track. If there's a coil inside I don't know (didn't measured continuity yet).
 
I just found one of our old Gates Criterion cart machines, this was a single deck play only machine and it has a dummy head with pins on the back of it. The pins read open with an ohm-meter on a high scale. So this one is a true dummy head. I have a triple deck somewhere if I can find it Ill check it.
 
Probably somebody had a bunch of 8 track heads he stuck in there after the original dummy heads became too grooved to use. Given your location, probably made more sense than pay import duties, shipping, etc., in order to buy new dummy heads.
 
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