Jon,
The tape goes on the hard plastic connector (that connects to the drive) at the end of the cable. You want the tape to reduce the inner space so that it forces the metal pins to make better contact, being careful not to place the tape over the metal pins themselves else you'll have no connection. I basically inserted the end of the tape strip into the thin slot of the connector, than wrapped around a couple of mm onto the outside of the connector.
**BUT** while the trick allowed me to finally see the drive from Disk Utility, I never got it beyond that. In the end I purchased a replacement for the cable and the problem was solved.
B