Odd... here in the States, Sharp will deal directly to the public... you don't even have to go thru a reseller (I have actually picked up Sharp parts by driving up the road to the Sharp factory and just walked in... I got a bunch of drive tires that way). Unless their policy has changed in the last 5 or 6 years (last sharp part I bought was a remote for a TV about 6 years ago). Don't know... I'm not even sure how to check, as the TV/VCRs are OEM'd by Funai, but sold under the name Symphonic, and there is almost no info about them on the company web site (too old I guess) They are felt clutches... and I tried rebuilding them with new felts... no luck... I couldn't seem to get it exactly right (never found exactly the right thickness). It always ended up either too little friction and it ate the tape, or too much friction and it stretched the tape. At least the TVs still work fine... so I gave them out to family/friends to use as 13" remote control, cable ready TVs. I still keep my eyes open hoping some day to find a way to get the replacement parts so I can get the VCRs working again. Its actually about time for me to give Funai another call and see if they will sell me parts (I bug them about every 6 months, figure maybe one of these times I'll get someone who doesn't know any better and will sell me the stuff... of course, one of my pit falls is, they will only sell via part number, and the clutches aren't stamped, so they need to look up the part, which keys them off that I am not an authorized repair center, and they nix the order... so I guess if I can just find the part number I might be golden to sneak thru) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>