I recently purchased a Nakamichi CR-1A cassette deck that was listed as is/for parts. This is the second CR-1A deck I’ve bought recently as I was surprised by how well this little two head deck sounds.
The owner stated the tape would not play, nor would it fast forward or rewind. I assumed new belts were needed and ordered a set from Vintage Electronics.
Nakamichi CR-1A decks require two belts. One to operate the main the flywheel and the other to operate the counter. There is also a Nakamichi CR-1 model that, I believe, has an idler tire that operates the rewind and fast forward modes. The CR-1A replaced that model with a plastic gear as you will see in the photos below. If you have a CR-1 and it’s no longer rewinding or fast forwarding, you will need to replace the idler tire as well. It should be very similar to replacing the idler tire on a Nakamichi BX-2 that I also posted here.
I documented how I installed the belts on this new CR-1A to share here. I will start with a step by step explanation of how to install the belts and then post photos below.
Continue reading “How To Replace The Belts In A Nakamachi CR-1A Cassette Deck With Photos!”