Hp-41C card reader - dead

[Vintage63]

SOLVED!!! The motor pulls the card all the way but it always reports a MALFUNCTION on whichever card I feed into it, be it with VER or RDTA.
What could be causing this? I have cleaned the head with an ear bud dipped into alcohol, I've used the red card to clean the head as well. I've used empty cards as well ad data containing ones. I'll write a program and see if it saves it as a last resort