What do you consider a ’modern alternative’? Are you expecting to change the pulleys? I just replaced mine with the same section V belt, bought from my local bearing company ABC.

Mine has a single belt, even though the motor drive is by twin sheave pulleys.

My quill (which had a dro read-out already fitted), has the reader fitted to the vertical head body and the scale screwed (by a suitable bracket to line things up) to the quill. It appears that it was nothing special and a straight-forward job, when fitted.

Edited By not done it yet on 01/03/2021 07:01:45

**THIS** should link to a PDF describing my mods to a MK3 VH.

Let me know how you get on.

Edited By Gary Wooding on 01/03/2021 13:08:55

My quill read-out looks almost identical likely exactly the same) to that on Gary’s machine. As I wrote earlier, I source my belts from ABC.

Without a location it is rather pointless giving specific details – unless it is an internet one. My local supplier provides a comprehensive service at very competitive prices, so I support them by using their outlet.

If I don’t know the belt number, I take along the belt and they match it. If I don’t have the belt I measure the pulley diameters and the centre distance – and then calculate the shortest belt length required. There is an adjuster on the Centec machine, so one size up usually suffices. A cam belt tensioner from a car will make a good replacement if yours is missing.