HP-85 Belts needed/drive wheel repair

To all, I've found an easy way to replace the gooey drive wheels on the HP cartridge drives as found in the HP-85, 9825, 9815, and other devices. First, remove the drive motor/drive wheel assembly from the tape drive assembly. Be careful not to break any of the wires going to the motor, tape head, opto sensors, etc.! Next, scrape of the goo remaining from the old hub. Once the majority is removed, use an acetone-soaked rag to get down to the bare aluminum hub. Next, cut three pieces of heat-shrink tubing whose diameter will allow them to just fit over the bare hub (it's either 1/2" or 3/4"--I don't remember offhand). Each piece should be about 1/2" long. Slip the first piece over the hub and center it vertically. Shrink it down with a heat gun or hair dryer. Slip the second over the first and shrink it. Likewise with the third piece. Leave the "overlap" of the tubing above and below the wheel. This helps to hold the tubing on the hub and doesn't affect the operation of the drive. Reassemble the tape drive mechanism. After a bit of practice, I can usually get a tape drive rebuilt in 15 or 30 minutes. So far, they have all worked fine. The drive wheel is a bit harder than the original rubber wheel, but it doesn't slip, as far as I can tell. The only caveat is that it's probably not a good idea to leave a tape in the drive (e.g., for autostart purposes) for long periods as the harder drive wheel *may* dent the wheel in the tape cartridge. Hope this helps! Stan Joe wrote: