Hey, Heatmizer: I don't know if you are still following this. I had a 688 in my closet since 2002, and pulled it out last week, and through my googling on repairs, I found your thread, and I want to thank you for your photos and post. It helped me tremendously and saved me a major repair. I found some belts on Ebay, and followed your post. My belt not only had broken, but apparently twisted around the plastic rotor on the capstan motor, and it all melted to a tarry goop on the capstan motor and rotor. After about 3-4 hours of careful cleaning, I got all parts like new, even the capstan motor. I was extra careful cleaning the goop off the motor, and the center axle itself. I was afraid it had gotten inside. Use sewing maching oil, it is so quiet now. Belt, flywheel, motor all work great now. I also found another thread about changing out the battery so I did that, too. Not easy, and I had to repair a ground wire I broke off, but it all seems to be working fine now, thanks to your and the other thread. Thanks again, and also to Ely. I am a "silver fox" as they say, but not to old to learn new tricks, and I can get back to recording like I used to. The repair place I was going to take it to had a min. $100 charge just to look at it, non-refundable. This post saved me easily $3-400 in charges. M