Good morning/afternoon everybody.

I bought this JC Penny Model #681-3887 boombox for $10 at the flea market this past Sunday. Anybody know what other model boombox this is a clone of? It's heavy for its small size. Missing 2 knobs (?) on cassette door, tuner works great but cassette belts need replacing, I assume, because it plays slow but will FFWD and RWD correctly. It's still dirty but will be taking it apart soon to check it out. I feel like I need to paint those speaker grills, though. It's just so grey.

Nice! It reminds me of an early Panasonic.

The cassette door and other design cues make me think early Hitachi. Nice box!

I'm not a big fan of 'tone only' boxes unless they're slim-line, but on the assumption that the loudness switch may make up for the lack of bass and treble controls, I would have bought it. Also, the LED meter is nice.

This comparison illustrates why it reminds me of an early Panasonic.

Looks like a early 1979-1980 model.

Does the belt for this boombox look correct? If the belt is supposed to be flat like this, is it supposed to be the same width as the pulleys? Or is supposed to have two square belts and if so how do I determine the width of the square belts?

Also, there is a bracket that is adjustable on top of the flywheel. Is the flywheel supposed to have some play up & down or do I adjust the bracket so that the flywheel has no play yet turns easy?

Thanks all in advance for your help.

Yes, it uses one flat belt. A little end play in the flywheel is fine and a little lite oil doesn't hurt either.

Thanks Teamstress.

Now, is the width of the belt correct or is supposed to be wider (up to the width of the pulley) so that the belt does not slip of the center of the pulley?

Thanks again.

Yes the width is correct. The pulley is made like that to keep the belt in the middle. A lot of boxes use the same style.

quote:

Anybody know what other model boombox this is a clone of?

yo,here are the aka models:

capetronic-rg0256 IBBN 7-16532
concord-2310 IBBN 7-15484
g.e.-3-5256 IBBN 7-08751
penney-3886 IBBN 7-03992
pulser-mkIV IBBN 7-16123