Thanks for your reply, but this appears to be a uniquely different problem. I am a very technical person and in fact have actually worked as a radio station engineer, so in general I don't go looking often for details such as this.

Many linear tracking turntables have the retaining ring located underneath the platter, instead of above the platter. this is the ring that normally would keep the platter from falling off the actual spindle of the turntable base. This Marantz is not an exception to that rule. The problem is that after the screws from the turntable cabinet (the base that the entire turntable sits on) the cabinet continues to be held together from screws which have been hidden in three deeply resessed wells underneath the turntable platter on top of the unit (or so it would seem.) These wells can only be seen and accessed by aligning 3 openings in the turntable platter face to the hidden screw resesses underneath the turntable platter. The wells where these screws are located are very narrow, deep, and whatever type of retaining piece there is, be it phillips screws, stars, or... hey !!! They could be a thumbtacks for all I can see... Anyway I just cannot get to these 'screws' or remove them.

In desperation one starts to wonder if an ax is the method of choice to open this turntable in order to access the platter retaining ring, so that one can take off the platter and replace the darned belt.

I think I can say with pretty good certainty that until the retaining ring is removed... no belt.. unless you might intend to (horrors!) cut one in two and glue it back together... is ever going to be replaced on this turntable.

Thanks, in any case, for a nicely written reply. Zounds! Will I have to stoop to buying a manual from Marantz in order to make what should be such a simple fix?

Dan