Hi, just got this Sharp GF-767 H from a friend, saw it years ago at his grocery store in the back room where he has coffe. He only used the radio. Asked if he would sell it to me some day, told him i would clean it and replace belts and make the tape decks run again. He said he would. So few weeks ago i said "when can i have the boombox, i'm not getting any younger!" Well.. he GAVE it to me last Wednesday.(09/02) I am very happy, and eager to start the process of giving it some of its former glory. I has never been cleaned, and here are few pictures i took (very dirty!) Tried to pull up the dome with hot glue and a screw, it worked, but there are still some small dents. So, i need to buy belts, idle tires,new speaker domes, 3 slider buttons and one antenna (or 2 to match) and if a can get one cassette door, (slim chance though) If you have any suggestions or comments that would be helpful.
Awesome find, you never know where they're hiding. I feel like in the old days there were a few UK Members with parts units but they might be long gone. I've rescued domes (dust covers) by using a vacuum, you want to get an extension pipe, drill some holes so you can regulate the vacuum and pull away.
Yes I could do that, but i'm concidering putting new domes I saw on eBay. I found new 3d printed slider switch, there are 3 missing
I think there is a guy on Ebay selling the Center Dome Speaker Dust Caps, he's easy to find.. as for belts, i have a Sharp GF999, i got my belts from ebay, i think the seller is in Portugal, mine cost me £17. i know it's a lot but they are proper ones and not poorly made cheap ones from china.
Nice! Nothing wrong with cheap belts from China, that’s where they’re all made anyway. I’ve used hundreds of them without a problem. I bet the seller in Portugal got theirs in a cheap multi pack from China, picked the right ones, then sold them at a big mark up.
The belts i bought from China, i fitted to a stereo and when i tested it, i got a lot of warble because they are so elasticated, so i took it off and found an old belt that i took off something else and it played normal, the cheap china ones are good for rewind and ff though but (me personally) i wouldn't use them for playback
Ok well that’s one belt on one deck. I’ve rebelted maybe 50 or 60 decks without a problem. Need to get the exact right fit otherwise you can have all sorts of issues…too tight or too loose you’ll get problems. More likely a bad fit than a bad belt. And I can pretty much guarantee they all come from China anyway. But if you want to pay extra for Chinese belts via Portugal then if it works for you go for it, but my experience of 50+ decks says otherwise
I did buy belts for my GF-6060 from German dealer on e bay 2 yrs ago , that fitted, and it sounds great That same dealer suddenly does not ship to my country anymore, and after no reply to my messages, i decided to check if the belts from other Sharp boomboxes fit. Downloaded the service manual for the GF-777 and compared the part numbers to the 767, and it's the same, so i bought one set from china for 13.42 £ ( that includes pinch roller set) and one set from Portugal for 17.47 £ so there not much cost difference. Fingers crossed
I'm afraid big paul is bang on si, ching chong belts are shite , they may work but last quarter the time my friend, many have complained about them over the years if i get skanked by another seller claiming to sell genuine belts for more there is nothing i can do but i certainly wont buy belts direct from china lad, that is asking for trouble lol
China makes bad stuff, good stoff, and great stuff. No way of knowing what you're going to get. In fact the same seller might be selling belts from multiple sources, so just because you had good luck with him in the past, doesn't mean you'll continue to have good luck. Often Chinese rubber components haven't fully cured yet, maybe because they used inferior solvents or curing compounds. I once purchased a cheap Chinese dolly from Harbor Freight, a discount hardware brand. The rubber wheels were so soft that they emitted petrochemical odors for several months. I could smell them from 5 meters away.
I remember guys getting belts for m90's etc and then saying the box didn't work much after a year, sure enough when they were asked they were from china i have a friend that buys quite a bit from there like phones etc, none of it lasts much more than a year funny you say good stuff made in china tho Reli....my monitor audio speakers are made there but they are actually sold as a uk brand which i guess is a lie lad there was a thread a couple of years ago about all the fake stuff in china, I'm staying well away lol
When was the last time anyone checked something like a packet of belts and it didn’t say ‘made in China’ on them lol. Does anyone actually think there’s a factory in somewhere like Portugal making them? I highly doubt it lol. It’s nothing new, most cheap consumables have been made in China for decades. The west simply don’t make stuff like this any more as they can’t make it cheap like China does. But as Reli says they’ll be of varying quality, which is completely to be expected, because it was the same when the west still made stuff…some of it was good, and some was terrible. Oh and the best way to get them is in bulk packs, they go for pennies each not pounds. I’ve got a good back up for if a Chinese belt is no good anyway, I bought up the stock of belts from a closing repair shop lol, I have hundreds and hundreds of belts lol.
Yes I love all the products that proudly say "Designed in England" or "Designed in Sweden".....but the place of manufacture is written somewhere else in small print, lol It won't be too long before China starts outsourcing its labor to Africa, just like Japan started outsourcing its labor to SE Asia in the 80s
There are still at least two belt manufacturers in Japan, I've seen the websites, they also dabble in larger belts for industrial applications. Locally we have one still doing business, https://www.precisionassoc.com/ They built a new larger factory so things must be going good for them. We also have at least one large rubber roller company here, they might have done audio rollers in the past but I don't know for sure. We have a ton of medical device manufacturers here, I'm sure they want the best parts for their equipment. I also have a thousand or so belts, most are marked with "MCM," remember when they were the Grainger of Audio? I even have a few kits marked "Sony Walkman" and they have about seven belts in them. The hard part is finding the right size and shape.
Hi all. After much work on this Sharp, it is finished Taking this thing apart was nerve wrecking at first, took a lot of pic. Decided to take good time while i was waiting for the parts to arrive, belts came from WebSpareParts in Portugal, domes from China,and 3D printed replacement sliders from Russia. Cleaned everything inside out, idle tires i didn't replace.Adjusted speed, tape 1 has a little distortion (noting i can hear really) 2 is spot on 3000 mhz. I am happy with my restore,sound is great! And for some pic
Very nice, I wonder what happened to the molds for that monster case, we used to have a huge metal stamping plant by us and they had thousands of General Motors Stamps out in the yard going back decades.
