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  #16  
Old 06-18-2017, 05:00 AM
waltchan waltchan is offline
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Originally Posted by ZenithDude88 View Post
the rest of the unit was direct drive (the capstans, the idler tires, the video drum, etc.) on all of the JVC made Zenith VCRs from the 1980s, and those VCRs were actually quite nice and quite reliable units because they were 90% direct drive (the other 10% was belt driven but those parts weren't super critical parts that needed to be direct drive).
Yep, that's right. JVC VCRs were incredibly advanced at that time that service technicians seldom saw JVCs for service during the early-90s, because the two belts lasted a long time and people were enjoying them in their homes. Toshibas were even better. Some Panasonic AG models qualify as long as it has a linear power supply. On the other hand, Hitachi was such a huge disgrace, I think, a sloppy Japanese-pride work thinking 6-7 belts meant more reliability. Japanese have always been fascinated with low-maintenance and reliability, and Hitachi failed miserably.
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  #17  
Old 06-18-2017, 05:50 AM
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Findm-Keepm Findm-Keepm is offline
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Originally Posted by waltchan View Post
The owner of Studio Sound Electronics, the largest VCR belt kits supplier, would love to know which year and chassis from the Sharp VCR decks you're referring? I have regular contacts with him daily for the last 17 years. He claims Sharp was one of his more-reliable VCR brands.
Russell Industries is the only VCR belt kit provider these days - they own PRB (http://russellind.com/news/PRB.htm), and the EVG/GC line.

http://www.russellind.com/prbline/index.html

Anyone else is a reseller. I get them from Russell via their 800-number and cut out the middle men. Saves time and money - too many others say they have it, but then have to backorder it.....from Russell. My last order was shipped free - I think I tripped a "buy $$ or more and get free shipping" sorta thing, I dunno.

I was using MAT Electronics for years, but they didn't have what I wanted once, and so I ordered from Russell. Prices were lower so....
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  #18  
Old 06-18-2017, 07:19 PM
ZenithDude88 ZenithDude88 is offline
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Originally Posted by waltchan View Post
Yep, that's right. JVC VCRs were incredibly advanced at that time that service technicians seldom saw JVCs for service during the early-90s, because the two belts lasted a long time and people were enjoying them in their homes. Toshibas were even better. Some Panasonic AG models qualify as long as it has a linear power supply. On the other hand, Hitachi was such a huge disgrace, I think, a sloppy Japanese-pride work thinking 6-7 belts meant more reliability. Japanese have always been fascinated with low-maintenance and reliability, and Hitachi failed miserably.
I've actually owned several JVC Sourced Zenith VCRs over the years, most of which were given to me by people who were retiring them in favor of DVDs or because they got new VCRs and they all worked great with the exception being an old Zenith sideways loading VCR that the small loading mechanism belt that loaded the tape into the heads had failed and I couldn't find a belt small enough to replace it with and when that belt went it screwed up the loading mechanism's timing, other than that I've never had any issues with them.

I've also owned a couple of JVC VCRs from that time period, one was an S-VHS unit from about 1987 that I had picked up at a garage sale that the unit was complete except for the original remote so some of the special features weren't functional because of not having the original remote, and now I have the Prosumer grade unit that was the sister to the JVC S-VHS unit that I had previously (same setup and everything for the controls) that I had picked up at Goodwill and it was complete with its original owners manual and remote for $5 and that thing works like a charm.

Anyways I've had a couple of Toshibas over the years more recently an early 1990s unit that was a 4-head Hi-Fi unit that the belts in it went bad and when I went to replace the belts the timing of the loading mechanism for the tape to the heads got screwed up some how and I was never able to get the unit to work right so I ended up scrapping it out.
The other Toshiba I had was one that was given to me by my High School I graduated from which they had bought them brand new in 2004 and they gave it to me because supposedly the unit quit working somehow but when I got it home and plugged it in and turned it on and loaded a tape, sure enough it fired right up and worked like a charm I even had its original remote for it but then I went to change the loading mechanism belt (for loading the tape into the deck) because it was starting to get a little sluggish and then the VCR suddenly quit working as in it wouldn't power on anymore and had a blank display on the front, so then I scrapped it and salvaged the belts off the unit. So Toshiba VCRs I've not had much luck with.
Just my 2 cents worth.
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  #19  
Old 06-20-2017, 03:06 PM
waltchan waltchan is offline
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Originally Posted by ZenithDude88 View Post
Anyways I've had a couple of Toshibas over the years more recently an early 1990s unit that was a 4-head Hi-Fi unit that the belts in it went bad and when I went to replace the belts the timing of the loading mechanism for the tape to the heads got screwed up some how and I was never able to get the unit to work right so I ended up scrapping it out.
The other Toshiba I had was one that was given to me by my High School I graduated from which they had bought them brand new in 2004 and they gave it to me because supposedly the unit quit working somehow but when I got it home and plugged it in and turned it on and loaded a tape, sure enough it fired right up and worked like a charm I even had its original remote for it but then I went to change the loading mechanism belt (for loading the tape into the deck) because it was starting to get a little sluggish and then the VCR suddenly quit working as in it wouldn't power on anymore and had a blank display on the front, so then I scrapped it and salvaged the belts off the unit. So Toshiba VCRs I've not had much luck with.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Yes, that's the carriage belt you were trying to work on, and once you timed it right, these were pretty reliable units. Your other Toshiba VCR from 2004 was made by Samsung, and Toshiba was not involved in the manufacturing process. So, blame Samsung first. If you think Samsung makes all reliable stuff that you now buy today, including LED TVS, think again...
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