Good news for Toshiba KT-RS1 and KT-AS1 owners. I stumble upon this shaft gear replacement meant for KT-VS1 series from eBay from a seller named discoto_1. Upon close inspection of the screenshot, it looks identical to KT-RS1 shaft gear, I took a chance and bought it. As soon as I received it, it is indeed exact the same as my KT-RS1 gear! Installing is tricky, the hole diameter is a little too small, so pound the shaft with a padlock on a soft wooden block, it is a miracle the gear did not split, showing the quality of plastic is good enough. The pack comes with retainers, but since it is designed for KT-VS series, the hole diameter is too large for KT-RS1 shaft, also only comes with white color so it wont do well with collectors looking for authenticity. I tested on my KT-RS1 and the rewind and fast forward is much quieter. Also the auto reverse works reliably, not worry of gear slipping out of position ever again.
Isn`t it better to heat the spindle before stucking the shaft on it ? The shaft will deform until it`s fits, right ? So you can save from splitting.
Thanks for sharing @rocket350cutlass ! If the shaft is too tight of a press fit, maybe it would be better to enlarge it with a drillbit and glue it rather than forcing as in second scenario it's likely the gear will split again in the future. Good to know the retainers aren't usable on all models. Another user stated on the forum these gears didn't work at all for him, so glad to see some good feedback also. As for most people, repairing the old ones is too involved and only way of fixing this walkman is by using the new ones. Heating is something I wouldn't recommend since the plastic will shrink from heat.
I had seen the comment about the hex part not gripping. I suspect the gear is slightly smaller than spec since the only reference are the shrunken gears. I did not enlarged the hole so when I forced the shaft in and the hex part may had been enlarged allowing to fit better with the larger gear. Maybe only enlarge the hole on the gear part to ease the stress while leaving the hex section alone allowing it to grow larger and provide better fit. So far I run the auto reverse several times and it still works
I will be curious how these hold up. Sorry to be a doubter, but I tried these on 3 separate machines, 2 VS-1s and an AS-1, all of which started slipping at the hex in about 2 weeks. I did order them from the same seller, but it's been about half a year since then so it's entirely possible there was a change in the production process since then. It is also worth noting that the replacements are not directional like the original gears are for the auto-reverse models. I didn't see it having any impact on performance however.
