Hey guys. So I recently found a Sony WM-55 on eBay. When I got it, I found that it played slow and the FF/REW weren't working. Immediately I knew that the belt needed to be changed. After doing that, I also adjusted the motor speed and everything seemed to work fine. However, I noticed that the sound on the REV direction of the auto reverse was stronger in the left channel, where as on the FWD side of the auto reverse, everything was balanced. Even when I flip the tape, the sound is unbalanced on the REV direction. I have looked into the service manual and checked out the circuit board but I can't find a solution. Any ideas?
Hi Sergeant_Ryan_. I have a somehow similar issue with my Sony WM-F2085 unit: the belt was changed and speed calibrated - the player works great on the FWD direction. When I switch to the other side, everything works fine mechanically wise: the tape direction reverses (just like in your WM-55) but in my case, instead of an issue with the other 2 tape tracks of the tape head, mine other 2 tape tracks are not engaging AT ALL. Therefore, when I switch sides, my WM-F2085 keeps playing the same 2 tracks (L+R) of the FWD direction backwards! In your case (because of the constant signal attenuation on a specific tape track), I would check for a cold solder (bad joint causing higher resistance) on tape head ribbon or its IC (particularly on the circuit responsible for the attenuated track). Worst case, it could be also be that the tape head has a permanent damaged track? Regarding my player, I need to investigate my service manual to try to understand how the mechanical switches responsible to change from FWD to RWD interacts with the IC responsible to change the tape head tracks. Hopefully it's an easy switch cleaning fix. Otherwise I will keep this unit to head hidden "demon" messages playing tape backwards! lol Let's wait for the more experienced users to comment. That's the beauty of this community!
Hey ebuy05. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to look into it as soon as I can and see if the solder is the issue or if it's the actual head. I'm surprised I received a response that quickly. Thanks a lot! If I'm reading your problem correctly, you say that your Walkman is playing the FWD or the A side of the tape Backwards when in REV mode. I noticed when I was working on my WM-55 that this would happen while I was testing the motors while I had the circuit board lifted up. I tested a tape and found that the sound was the A side BACKWARDS. I then found a little contact that was out of place. When I put the circuit board back in place, I put that contact back in place so when the DIR button was pressed, the contact was engaged and the sound became normal again. Maybe look around and see if anything is out of place while working on your Walkman. If needed I can upload some images of what I'm talking about. Hope everything works for you!
Hello Sergeant_Ryan! I'm glad to confirm you that your hint was bang on! I found the switch that was causing the issue. The switch is located underneath the main board as shown on the photos below. Fortunately, I was able to fix it without any disordering (required to remove to check the other side of the board). All fixing happened through a tiny inspection hole existing (probably for this reason) to the other side of this board. De-oxit alone did not fix the issue, I used a tiny toothpick to carefully "work" the switch back (with the unit running) and forward until it started working again! Now my beloved WM-F2085 works perfectly This is the same model I enjoyed during my teens (not the same unit) and as pointed out by walkman-archive, it is a great sounding mid-range unit! Thanks a lot for your hint and good luck with your WM-55! Keep us posted. ebuy05. WM-F2085 Rev Switch Layout by ebuy05 posted Oct 24, 2017 at 9:42 PM WM-F2085 Inside by ebuy05 posted Oct 24, 2017 at 9:40 PM
