Greetings,
Didn't hear about your issue till the Newsletter just showed up. Hopefully it's still helpful for the future.
I have an 8500F, but I'll assume it has the same configuration as your machine.
Are you referring to the belt that actually drives the spectrometers (flat gray band) or the braided silver wire with loops at each end that tensions the assembly, and runs around a bunch of pulleys all over the place?
If it's the drive belt, that's something you can certainly do for yourself, though it's pretty annoying, as there's a sort of Mobius Strip folding loop trick to get it installed correctly, and you have to get the loop the right way or it rubs.
The wire, on the other hand, requires removal of the baseplate assembly, which is a pretty hard core procedure that also requires the skill to do a baseplate alignment procedure after reinstall.
If it's the belt that's failing, I wonder if it has been repeatedly installed incorrectly? Believe me, it's easy to do, and I've spent hours staring at the tricky fold/loop trying to decide if I got it right, and even seen technicians second guess themselves. It's also possible that you're just having bad luck. The JEOL Rube Goldberg design is prone to belt/wire failure. I've probably had an average of 1 a year since I've been in the driver seat, but one per year on the same spectro seems excessive even for a JEOL...
Feel free to contact me offline if you'd like more information on the process.
Cheers,
Scott B.
boroughs@probesoftware.com