I ordered a new belt for my GE 3-5252A from turntableneeds.com The belt is 45 years old and I wanted to replace it as a matter of maintenance. Nothing wrong with the cassette playback before I tried to replace it. Their website says the correct belt is FBS9.4 The belt arrived and it looks incorrect when compared to the original. I measured the replacement belt and it matches the recommendation on their website. The original belt is 2.6mm wide vs. 3.5mm wide for the replacement. Original belt is 132mm length vs 115mm length for the replacement. Original belt is .6mm thick vs .8mm thick for the replacement. Against my better judgement I installed it and the cassettes now play at half speed and they warble terribly. The belt appears too wide and too tight. Can anyone confirm what size belt the GE 3-5252A takes? Where have you had good luck ordering belts? I don’t know how to order a belt manually by its dimensions. I’ve always ordered based on BBX model # Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. This is my favorite boombox that I own…it’s killing me to have it apart on the workbench and non-functional.
That's the belt Russell Industries recommends in the PRB_Belt_XRef.pdf manual and a lot of these distributors are buying from them. I looked around and couldn't find anything on the net.
Thank you so much for trying. I know just enough about belt changes to be dangerous. I’m going to measure the belt again with a micrometer and a string and try to locate the right size. I wasn’t prepared for the stress when the belt didn’t fit. This was the very first boombox I ever bought (age 13 in 1982). The thought of having the cassette non-functional was very upsetting. To add to the stress - the radio requires significant disassembly to change the belt…including unsoldering several wires and tearing apart the cassette mechanism itself. I recently replaced a belt in an RX-5010 and it took 15 minutes start to finish. My GE has been considerably more difficult.
