Replacement "pick" roller for card reader

I picked up an HP7260A table top card reader, with the aim of restoring it to working condition. The major problem has been that the "pick" roller that moves the card out of the input hopper and through the first gate had melted into a pile of goo, ending up in a puddle in the output hopper. I only had to sacrifice four blank cards (hand fed) before getting one to pass thru the rest of the transport almost entirely unblemished(*). So far the control/sequencing circuitry seems to be working, but I haven't checked yet if any data is comming out the serial port. Thanks to the HP Computer Museum (www.hpmuseum.org), I found the maintenace manual, and an image of what the roller looked like (#48 in the image below): http://www.ultimate.com/phil/roller.jpg I used one of these readers when I was in High School c. 1978. Before finding the maintenance manual I had no memory of what the roller looked like, but it must have been something soft, with a lot of gripping power. Any suggestions (short of attempting to cast a replacemnt out of melted gumi candy)? The axle is a quarter inch or close, and roller needs to be at least a quarter inch thick. I'm tempted to drop in on a local rubber products company (Greene Rubber, in Woburn Ma), but knowing what to ask for would help! Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Phil (*) One pinch roller inside was slightly gooey, and still gives off blackness, no matter how many times I clean it. The pinch rollers all have a flat spot from having sat for many years, and I might try to replace them with O-rings, but it's not the top priority.