Fixed up a pal's Quasar VR-1000 - Playback Motor Belt and FF/REW Idler Tire Discussion

One of my buddies dropped off some Quasar and U-Matic decks for me to look at, and I'm happy to say that I so far got one of the Quasars up and running! This unit was giving an immediate Auto-Stop any time you tried to play, fast-forward, or rewind. Since the take-up spool felt a little stiff, I lubricated the shaft to the reels and replaced the playback belt (more on that later). Still no improvements. I confirmed that nothing was jammed up, then ran the unit through its paces with the plug to the front panel undone--this defeats the Auto-Stop from activating. Upon replugging the connector, the Auto-Stop went away! Also, the brush that rides against the drum belt was causing a squealing sound w/ noise in the picture. Removing the brush fixed this issue.
Even after cleaning the whole tape path, there was still snow in the picture. The reason was that the take-up reel did not have enough torque in 'Play'--the low torque causes the tape to go slack and lose contact with the head drum. It took a while for me to realize, but why that was was because the replacement I had used was too thick/tight; using a 1mm square belt w/ diameter about equal to the pulley (as I describe, you want the belt to be firm around the pulley to where you basically need a dental pick to be able to grab it and work it around the motor shaft), the snow in the picture went away and there was crystal-clear video!
This machine still has problems with rewind and fast-forward. The idler tire is cracked, and inverting it was only a temporary fix. The largest generic O-ring I had was no good (3.1mm thick) as a replacement, so I will have to find a replica tire. The dimensions to the tire are: 25mm (ID) x 31mm (OD) x 5mm (CS).
I also had to spray Deoxit into the switch on the audio/tracing board, as there was intermittent audio coming out at first. But that seemed to be all there was to it. Hope this procedure list helps those who have a unit they're looking to fix.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

I’ll order a bunch of those rewind tires as soon as I find out where to get them. Looks a bit tricky to get to them to replace.