Hi Everyone,

I picked up a Sansui SR-222 for cheap at a flea market over the weekend. This is the first belt drive turntable I've owned. The table itself was fairly dirty, but it cleaned up marvelously.

There's a mystery, however. I took off the platter and removed the belt. The belt looks okay (but I understand it might be worn out despite appearances). I plugged in the table and switched the motor on at 33 and 45 rpms. It was dead quiet, with the little motor capstan spinning along perfectly. Likewise, I replaced the platter (without the belt) and gave it a spin. The platter spins in complete silence, and takes a long, long time to stop spinning once started. All is good, right?

Well, then I replace the belt and start it up, and the table starts making this scraping noise, almost like a metal on metal noise but not quite. It's hard to tell where it's coming from. It's not very loud, but certainly no turntable should be making that noise. I put on a record and listened through headphones, and I couldn't pick up the sound of the scraping through them.

Any idea what's going on? I thought maybe the bearing was worn and would only scrape under stress from the belt, but I tried spinning the platter with slight stress toward the motor and it was still silent. This model of turntable does have a rather unique speed switching mechanism, like a plastic fork, through which the belt passes before winding on the motor capstan and returning to the platter you can see it in this picture:
http://www.classicsansui.net/images/Literature/Turntables/SR222_1.jpg .

The only thing I can think of is if the belt is scraping on this plastic fork, but why would Sansui design the table with a mechanism that would scrape when the belt passes through? Are there any common scraping sounds associated with old belts?

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

The belt should ride on the crown of the pulley (lower crown 33,upper crown 45).When the belt becomes stretched it tends to ride off the crown especially on start up and scrapes against the white plastic mechanism.A correctly tensioned belt should ride on the crown of the pulley which should be perfectly clean.Assuming the mechanism isn't bent or damaged a stretched belt is most likely.The belt should stay on the platter ring without falling off when the platter is lowered onto the bearing assembly then it can be hooked over the pulley.If it falls off the it is stretched and time for replacement.That type of mechanism was quite common on the belt drive turntables of the era.

Okay, thanks for the information. The belt does drop off the inner platter when the platter is upside down, so I'll order a new belt and see what happens. Thanks again!