Naim unitilite drawer belt?

Hi-Fi Corner
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Where can I purchase a replacement drawer belt for my unitilite.

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@davidhendon is the most knowledgeable forum member about this. Hopefully, he will be able to advise you.

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I think Paul overstates my knowledge, but anyway a few comments.

  1. Naim usually replace the whole assembly apparently as they find just changing the belt doesn’t reliably fix the issue for long enough. But whether they still have spares is another question and anyway a repair on their ambitious repair/service price list is very expensive.

  2. You can very easily get at the belt and change it, without doing any disassembly at all. Don’t start taking the case off or removing the drive because it won’t help at all and you might break something.

  3. My own experience is that changing the belt immediately fixed the issue and it takes only a few seconds to do. You don’t even have to take the Unitilite off a rack or unplug anything.

  4. A first thing to try is removing the belt and then plunging it into freshly boiled water for a few seconds (I suggest 5 secs or something like that). This has the effect of reminding the material that it’s supposed to be stretchy!

  1. If you need an actual new belt, what I did was buy from eBay a mixed bag of belts for repairing cassette players. It cost me £10 for 100 miscellaneous belts. I found several that looked like they could be used and chose one that I thought most similar to the old belt. This was ages ago though and I don’t know whether such packs of belts are currently sold, but I guess they will be.
  2. Getting the belt out involves pulling the drawer open manually, then looking inside above the base of the drawer and hooking the belt out with something. Putting it back is the same in reverse. If looks hard to do but isn’t hard at all.
  3. I’m copying this to @NeilS in case he has anything to add, like is there an actual belt spare that one could order through a dealer?
3 Likes
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It would be good to get a process down and some pictures so I can make an FAQ post for this.

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I will bear this in mind…

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I think your extensive reply confirms my first post in this thread. That Richard would like your help in creating an FAQ post supports my view.

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Do you let the belt recover on It’s own or dip it in cold water straight away

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I believe recover on its own but it’s @NeilS tip, so let’s see what he says.

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I think David has covered it well. We receive the CD tray as an assembly, so I don’t know the specification of the belt.
I’ve always allowed the belt to cool naturally after boiling when I’ve done this for cassette decks etc.
It does work, but it’s not really a long term fix. YMMV.

Regards
Neil.

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So i leave it in for about 5 seconds

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Quick question

How do you remove the belt without removing the casework

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Manually open the flap at the front & reach in with a pair of tweezers to hook it off. It lives underneath the moving part of the tray.
Shining a light in will probably help.

Regards
Neil.