C100 belt routing help please :-)

Been on a blitz sorting a number of boxes. Finally cracked open my Helix C100 to service it, both decks need rebelting. Got as far as dismantling and cleaning the deck ready for belts before quitting for the day. Gonna carry on tomorrow and thought I’d just double check the routing.

When the back goes back on the motor spindle is about where the red cross is.

The flat belt is obvious, but the square slightly less so...anyone wanna give me a clue

Pretty sure there's no special routing for the square belts it simply loops around the pulleys in a circle.

Round the outside then?...sounds good to me

That's correct. As it sits in the picture, the flywheel will lift straight off the deck with the back off if you want to see the lower pulley for the smaller belt. Just don't lose the spring or plastic gear underneath. You will then see the small inner pulley for the SBS8.9 belt under the flywheel. It then loops around the outside of the other two pulleys. If reverse rewind seems a bit slow on larger tapes another member noted that swapping the SBS8.9 for a SBS9.2 helped with this.

The hard part for me was getting the flat belt FMB9.6 to stay on the flywheel while positioning the rear cover onto the deck while also making sure the solenoid action lined up with the lever it works. You almost need 3 hands...lol

A 9.2" counter belt did nothing but slip for me. It may have helped the other member because it reduces tension, but you can only do that to a point. Shoring up the wiggly tape run pulley shaft, to prevent it from rubbing on the sides, removed all the rewind drag. https://boomboxery.com/forum/index.php/topic/26794-clairtone-7980-oh-god-dear-god-why-didnt-you-package-me-properly-restoration/?p=345357

That’s great, thanks guys. I’d rather put it in right first time than experiment unecessarily. I’ll check out the belt sizes I have...I’ve just picked up some new old stocks from a hifi shop so have nearly 350 belts to chose from. On top of the 100+ I already had lol