Interestingly enough your VCR had the same issue as my old Hitachi VCR had (it too was a top loader but a few years older than yours) but anyways mine sadly enough didn't work perfectly like yours did once I replaced the belts as mine has several electrical problems including playing the tape too fast the tuner or the VCR part not wanting to produce a picture (it will just go blank with no audio or video) and then I accidentally shorted something related to the clock/timer display because now the clock/timer display is screwed up. So I think my Hitachi VCR is sadly a lost cause.
