Steenbeck ST 1600 Timing Belts

[Jamie Kiffiak]

My wife and I have a 4 plate Steenbeck, ST1600.  Giving it a once over the other day  I see that the timing belts are in poor condition and need to be replaced.  I'm located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.  I'm unaware of any local repair technicians (but would be grateful to be connected if there were any), so am anticipating that I may need to try to change them myself...except, I don't know how to do that.  Does anyone have any information they can share on this procedure, or possible the size of the three belts that this machine takes?  I do know how to lift the deck, to expose the belts, but two of the gears are covered in housing that would need to be removed, it seems, in order to remove/replace two of the belts.

 

Thank you in advance for any help,

 

Jamie

[Mark Dunn]

You'll have my YT reply by now.

You need two DR83 and one DR70 belt- if you're not interested in sepmag you can forego one DR83. Both sizes are listed on ebay at the moment in the UK. These are the surplus from a bulk purchase of belts from the Cinema Museum in London for servicing its own machines which I have been helping with.

An alternative source would be Dwight Cody at Cutfilm in MA, USA. You could say I sent you.

As you suspect the main drive and prism housings do need to be removed- fair to say it's complicated but not difficult and doesn't need any special tools. It's easy to lose the framing so try not to move the teeth on the main drive during the change.

Edited October 9, 2023 by Mark Dunn

[Jamie Kiffiak]

Thank you, very much.  Given how complicated the replacement seems, I have been in contact with Dwight and will be looking to see about bringing him to Vancouver, Canada at some point to service our machine along with several others (4 so far). If anyone reads this and has a Steenbeck in the local area they would be interested in having serviced they could be in touch with Cineworks.

[Robert Hart]

I second Dwight Cody. He has been very helpful.

[Mark Dunn]

That is quite a hike for Dwight but if the economics works out there is no-one better qualified in the Western Hemisphere. I have had a great deal of really valuable advice from him over the years. In fact have even been offered fees for consultancy on belt replacement myself which thanks to Dwight's encouragement I have felt confident enough to accept. He should really be on commission.

Edited October 15, 2023 by Mark Dunn