First: I wish you all a happy new year. Let’s hope for peace and healthiness.
Since I still had problems with the belts I was using from eBay I now found another manufacturer. After several months of usage I noticed that one belt, that got already replaced, failed. Not sure if it was a quality issue of just one belt but I have absolutely no intention to disassemble the machine frequently. Of course, the used belts do have the same dimensions as the original belt.
Now what is the problem? The left flywheel which moves the servo up and down requires additional torque to be able to do so. While the belt gets spanned around the right flywheel, the left flywheel has only about 90 degrees contact with the belt. Due to this fact, the belt sometimes slip through and the servo is not moving the full length, get stuck somewhere in between and/or the flywheel hangs which resulting in an unusable tape mechanism and – if you read this blog you already know – leaves the CD-Player also unusable.
Whilst it is not possible to change the way how the belt drives the flywheels I decided to do more tests with different belts. The height of the original belt is 3mm and this can be improved. After a lot of measurements and tests I figured out that 5mm would be more suitable. A belt with 6mm height sometimes scratches the case.
Well, now that I found more suitable belts I have no idea what to do with my 15 old belts on stock. Seems I just wasted more money…
