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o-rings for belts?

spartanmanor

spartanmanor

Lunatic Member
Thanks to hakaplan, Howard I was able to get the cuing mech on my SL-1700 MK II turntable working again with an o-ring. I am now thinking that o-rings might be a good alternative to impossible to find belts. I have a Yamaha tape deck which is missing two belts and am going to see if o-rings might do the trick. Anyone else using o-rings for belts? :scratch2:
 
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I have used them but not for long! They are not as resilient as the rubber used in belts and they quickly get stretched out and stop working. Don't say I didn't warn you...
 
MAYBE to open a door or drawer, that's about it. Another trick I have used, (again NOT on a speed sensitive drive pulley) is to put a piece of shrink wrap over the small pulley, heat it carefully and reinstall the old belt. I've done this on a few cd players where the drawer wont close all the way, worked like a charm.
 
IF you looking for tray belts for old CD player you can use belts from any old CD-ROM. I fixed my Carver DTL-200 with it and it worked like a charm.
 
I've used thin O-rings as CD tray belt replacements with good success when the originals can't be located. I try to get them just a hair smaller in ID to allow for the stretch in the old belt. I clean them in alcohol to remove the typical silicone coating, and then when dry, I'll gently rub a very fine emery board over the surface to break the sheen and give them a bit more traction.

Tape decks usually require more of a flat belt of sorts. If you know the size, you can usually cut and splice a turntable belt as a replacement. Necessity truly is the mother of invention... :yes:

BTW, SuperScope (in Batavia, IL) still carries parts for and services/repairs any Marantz Professional series tape deck or CD deck. The folks in Service are really nice, so if you know the length of the belt, you could give them a call and see what they have that might work size-wise for you.
 
O-rings seem to work well on Wurlitzer jukebox turntables...have noticed no wow or flutter at all. However, I would go for a real belt on a cassette recorder mechanism where the belts are difficult to get to, just to make sure you get the longest life.

We get our belts from Studio Sound Electronics...
http://www.studiosoundelectronics.com/
 
I have had good luck using an O ring to replace the drive tire on a Philips Turntables tonearm cueing control. A trip to NAPA found a couple that were the right size and had a little stretch to get them over the hubs. Originally they were a square tire but then the original ones were all rubber goo so I figured the O rings couldn't end up worse. So far they have worked perfectly.
 
On tape equipment, belts are extremely critical. O-rings have the wrong resiliancy.

A square-cut or flat belt should be stretched about 3%-5% between slack and "on the pulley," depending on belt elasticity. For low wow-and-flutter on a cassette deck, a flat belt should be no thicker than .025" -- and, if possible, .020". (Reel-to-reels can handle thicker belts.) I have proved this literally thousands of times on a Leader wow-and-flutter meter.

The PRB catalog was largely assembled from feedback from repair companies that mainly serviced TV's and did audio on the side. Many technicians who were mainly video specialists preferred tight belts, and knew little or nothing about the relationship between belt thickness and wow-and-flutter. The result of this was literally millions of damaged bearings on cassettes, reel-to-reels and turntables, accompanied by a persistent, audible wavering of the speed.

Fred Longworth
 
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