Sourcing a belt for a Nakamichi 480 cassette machine

[Nickthedentist]

Hello everyone,

Can anyone recommend a source for the belts for this c.1980 machine. It's a cheapie by Nak standards, but still has one of their own decent mechanisms. Because it's a dual capstan machine, the capstan belt is much more critical than in most machines.

I would have liked to buy from Thakker in Germany, but they've advised that they no longer supply to the UK (B****t!).

Any suggestions, please?

Nick.

[emeritus]

You have my sympathy. After 9/11 the swingeing penalties introduced by the US government on companies not complying with the export documentation requirements aimed at ensuring stuff was not being shipped to hostile foreign clients, lead to McMaster-Carr only shipping stuff to existing well-estabished non-US clients. When I needed some of their stuff that I couldn't find elsewhere I had to get a contact in the US to buy it and post it to me themselves. Do you have any friends or relatives in the Irish Republic?

[stevehertz]

One for sale here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Capstan-D...Cclp%3A2334524

[RT 1006]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Hello everyone,

Can anyone recommend a source for the belts for this c.1980 machine. It's a cheapie by Nak standards, but still has one of their own decent mechanisms. Because it's a dual capstan machine, the capstan belt is much more critical than in most machines.

I would have liked to buy from Thakker in Germany, but they've advised that they no longer supply to the UK (B****t!).

Any suggestions, please?

Nick.

I'm in a rush just now but will get back to you later as with links to suitable belts as I refurbished one of these exact same machines no so long ago.

[RT 1006]

I recently spent a great deal of time trying to source good quality AV belts for various tape player restorations, one of those restos was a Nakamichi 580. I had difficulty sourcing the loading belt and capstan belt but eventually found suitable replacements here,

first one loading belt, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10Pcs-Dri...53.m2749.l2649 the belt you need is the 41.4mm one.

second one capstan belt https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5mm-Wide-...53.m2749.l2649 the belt you need is 82 x 5.0mm, select from the drop down menu.

As they're coming from China you're obviously going to have to wait 2 or 3 weeks but I found both belts to be of very good quality, particularly the flat belt, compared to some of the poor quality rubbish I bought from some other sellers during my extensive search for suitable replacements. At only a few pounds each they're good value too.

The two tape counter belts I obtained from CPC who have a good range of 1.2mm belts. Can't remember their diameters but measure against your original belts and you'll find something suitable.

Hope this helps.

[jascha]

For my 582 I was recommended to get mine from ASWO however I had to register with them and so on. I tried their belt on my 582 and it seemed to work well. Nowadays however I have installed one I bought directly from the Nak master Tom van der Hoff in Netherlands.
The ASWO link is the following, however I don’t have at hand the direct link or dimensions of the belt I bought from them but I can get it for you.
https://shop.aswo.com/aswoShop/start...es?storeId=509

Cheers

[HECTOR63]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/nakcentralaudiolabs

Worth an email post enquiry just as a chance they might be able to help.

[RT 1006]

After myself and a number of others took the trouble to reply to the originators request for information I find it disappointing that they have not afforded the courtesy of a thank you.

Anyway, I'll leave my post up as a reference for anyone who may be grateful for such information on this particular cassette deck in the future.

[ortek_service]

For very thin belts used in Sony Walkmans, I found someone in E.Europe who specialised in restoring these that sold re-made belts of the right sizes on the usual online auction site - and much cheaper than some USA companies (especially with extremely high postage costs for such a small item).

Whilst looking for new belts for a Sansui cassette deck, I'd previously found a Turntable belts USA website, that whilst also being very highly-priced (nearly $30? each with delivery!), it did give you a model look-up and the sizes of the required belts. So I used this info to buy the closest ones that CPC had in their standard (very-cheap prices) range.
But when I actually went to replace these, I found the info was a bit duff on some of these, and so needed to actually measure the originals myself to order ones that actually fitted OK.

Not sure if CPC still do a range of belts, as I haven't seen a catalogue from them for many years. But there are a few suppliers (inc. in the UK) on the usual online auction site who sell (100?) assorted belt kits for only a couple of pounds (but there are a few same-size ones in these, so might only get 20-30 different sizes). So these can be worth having, just in case there's one in there that might fit.
It may also be possible to get one formed from a bit of longer stock material, as it seems most are really joined together at some point. But need a special vulcanising? machine as gluei may not be flexible / strong enough.

[HECTOR63]

Originally Posted by RT 1006

After myself and a number of others took the trouble to reply to the originators request for information I find it disappointing that they have not afforded the courtesy of a thank you.

Anyway, I'll leave my post up as a reference for anyone who may be grateful for such information on this particular cassette deck in the future.

Yes I guess its just our long standing want to be able to help and advise all with our experiences and endevours,but the occasional THANKYOU always raise a

[knobtwiddler]

CPC are listing a grand total of 9 belts, with 7 of them being currently in stock:

https://cpc.farnell.com/search?st=rubber%20belt

If anyone can find more at CPC, please let us know!

[Restoration73]

It is customary to state the belt dimensions if known.

Here is another range;

https://www.cricklewoodelectronics.c...ive-Belts.html

[ortek_service]

I'd forgot that Cricklewood did these - I do recall seeing them in their paper catalogue, when I last used them a few decades ago now.

And it seems Cricklewood now have nearly as many that CPC used to have, who I recall also had many in separate Flat / Square / Round categories.

[Nickthedentist]

Hello everyone!

Originally Posted by RT 1006

After myself and a number of others took the trouble to reply to the originators request for information I find it disappointing that they have not afforded the courtesy of a thank you.

I'm really sorry that I haven't responded to the thread earlier. Life's been frenetic lately, and I wanted to have time to read and digest everyone's helpful suggestions before replying.

But please be assured that I am extremely grateful for everyone's suggestions (especially yours) and I am sorry to have caused offence.

Like you, I also get irritated when people don't say thank you (on this forum and generally in life), but I suppose we have to remind ourselves that some people are grateful but just forget to show it

In the 16 years I've been a member of this amazing forum, I've found that almost everyone is extremely helpful and generous with their advice.

Nick.

[Nickthedentist]

I still use good old CPC for most of my cassette deck restorations. I was pleased to see that most of the belts they sold back in the 1990s when I last stocked up, ARE still available, they're just harder to find now that the huge paper catalogues are no longer issued.

For info, the flat ones are stock codes AVBELT1 to AVBELT55, the square ones AVBELT56 to AVBELT134.

I am also pleased to report that all of my 1990s stock of belts from CPC still seem to be elastic and supple, none having gone slack or gooey.

[Nickthedentist]

Finally, I'm pleased to report that the two Nak belts I ended up buying from eBay sellers (one in Germany, one in Lithuania(?)) both seem to do the the job well, and much to my surprise, this old deck is now working very well indeed, after lying dormant for >25 years according to the vendor.

Thanks again,

Nick.

[ortek_service]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

I still use good old CPC for most of my cassette deck restorations. I was pleased to see that most of the belts they sold back in the 1990s when I last stocked up, ARE still available, they're just harder to find now that the huge paper catalogues are no longer issued.

For info, the flat ones are stock codes AVBELT1 to AVBELT55, the square ones AVBELT56 to AVBELT134.

I am also pleased to report that all of my 1990s stock of belts from CPC still seem to be elastic and supple, none having gone slack or gooey.

That's useful to know that they do indeed sell these, but maybe they'll be stuck with a lot of their stock as long as we've had some previously ordered spares, if they can't be found very easily.
And this could become a problem for many warehouse-shop distributors in future, with the demise of most paper catalogues where you could just flick through and see exactly their full range in one place (But browsing through one the size of CPC's could take quite a long time!)

Although CPC do still have a link on many items to a numbered Catalogue page with on-screen view of these. So I wasn't certain if they had finally stopped producing or printing this.
- They went through a phase of only supplying catalogues to full account holders (told me it cost them £10 to produce one back in the 80's when I'd asked for one, and I had to pay £6? for multi-volume Electromail-version of the RS one), to CPC sending them free to anyone, then seemingly reluctant to send more than 1 out even to reasonable large company account holders, so 2009 is last one I've got)


Fortunately not many belts turn to gooey mess - mainly Philips N1500 VCR ones, it seems. And if not under tension, may last longer when unused in storage, if original material composition is OK.

[ortek_service]

I found CPC also had the odd AV03315 stock code as well as AVBELTxxx ones.

And that they also still do some round ones, with it seems 94 different ones in total (virtually all they have under 'AVSPARES' category). Plus either 'SoundLab' (aka Altai?) or Unbranded, but seemingly no 'catalogue' page linked to for these.

So after narrowing down the search to material=rubber, got this url to find them all: https://cpc.farnell.com/w/c/audio-vi...t=P_PRODUCT_ID

[Philips210]

Hi

The last CPC Catalogue I received was in 2015 called "The Big Book". Section 58, pages 3690/1 lists the audio spares. There's a useful range of flat, round and square section belts listed with the all important measurements conveniently tabulated. The turntable and cassette belt kits seem to be unavailable though.

On their website take a look under "Audio Spares" https://cpc.farnell.com/w/c/audio-vi...audio%20spares

It's a shame they no longer stock video belts etc but then that's obsolete technology so no doubt the reason why.

ISTR that Bowers and Wilkins, Worthing, West Sussex dealt in Nakamichi products but can't say if they'd be in a position to supply spare parts.

Regards,
Symon

[DMcMahon]

The Bowers and Wilkins old shop at Becket Buildings was due to permanently close last year, I do not know its current status, it may have re-opened in another guise.

They have a sales shop (for new products) listed at Dale Road, which is the address for their UK manufacturing plant.

David