Hello Forum Members.... Hoping for some advice and guidance on replacing the belt on a recently acquired Sony WM-AF605 / BF605 Walkman. The Walkman itself is in mint condition externally no scratches etc and still has its external battery holder. Everything works - Radio - motor sound for FWD / RWD / PLAY - so assuming that the belt has gone. I've already dismantle the Walkman by removing the back off of the unit however I am at a complete loss as to how to decouple / move the main circuit board so I can clean and remove the decomposing belt and put in a new one. Couple of things I observed that restrict movement : - Short wires connecting the battery power terminals to the main circuit board - assuming these will need to desolder these ? - 2 Ribbon type cables - which I can't decifier whether they are solder fixed or connected fixed. Any idea ??? Once these restrictions are negated, access to the motors and gear to clean and replace belt should be no problem. If this the case, any ideas what the path of the belt should be around the motor / gears ? As the service manual gives no indication of the belt path ? Lastly, this is the killer...as soon as tried to move the main circuit board from its screwed in position - the walkman goes dead ! It has to be seated in a particular way so that power goes to the motor (etc)...I spend more time wiggling, adjusting, pushing, bending the main circuit board back to that position than taking the back off....any ideas why this is the case - does the circuit board have to be in contact with other power terminals ??? All advice and guidance - greatly appreciated before I tackle this restoration, again !!
If flex cables end with a plastic connector, you can disconnect it. Otherwise desoldering is required. Once the board is removed, the buttons don't work as the motor/power switches are on the pcb and the buttons can only touch them with the board screwed down. For the belt path, check my Walkman 150 thread: http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/walkman-150-clutch-repair.628/
That walkman should have the same tape transport as the WM-190 I tried to restore. To access the fly-wheels and motor you just have to desolder the two wires connected to the battery compartment. Then gently free the flat cable in left down corner (head flat cable) so that the circuit board can be rotate 180 degrees to get out of the way.I would not attempt to desolder the flat cables, it's rather complex to solder them back. Belt path is rather weird to have the two fly-wheels rotating in opposite directions: This tape transport is indeed rather fragile and has several weak points: the two gears attached to the reels (red arrows) might brake (left one more frequent) or come loose; the clutch in the middle (red circle) tends to stiffen and should be opened to be lubricated or somehow "eased". On top of that, capacitors often leak and need to be replaced. Not an easy walkman to deal with ...
Hello Enryfox ! Thanks so much for the great advice and guidance....definitely not an easy Walkman to work on...hence my reason for asking questions now, before I brave opening it back up again ! Do you have any images of how the flat cable in the left corner as guidance ? How did you remove the flat cable, gently 'prise' out with a small flat screwdriver ? How did you reinsert the flat cable afterwards ? Also any ideas why and how the circuit needs to sit in a particular way for it to power back on again, does it need to 'touch' other points in the unit ? As I mentioned took ages to 're-seat' the main circuit board, again to bring the unit back to life again.. Thanks again for all you assistance...kind regards.
The head flat cable is attached to the PCB with a tiny adhesive strip; I did not desolder it, I just let loose the cable so that the PCB can be rotated freely; with a small screwdriver push gently in the direction of the arrow to remove the adhesive. The PCB has three switches which are pressed by the tape transport (motor power, play and direction); check the three holes in the PCB (red circles) and verify the black plastic head of the switch is in contact with the metal lever of the tape transport. The PCB is easier to insert if the tape transport is in stop position with direction REW engaged because no switch is pressed.
Sincere thanks again Enryfox...for your guidance on this restoration...you've given me the confidence to tackle this ! Will take pictures and post here when I start this at the weekend ! Thanks again....8)
Hi, in case this thread is still active: I combined two nonworking wm-190 into one. Everything worked fine but instead of music I only have a quite high pitched sound from the output. Any ideas where I could start looking for errors? Thanks in advance.
Were you able to ease the clutch ? I tried the same adventure but give-up for too many problem and one of those was the clutch too stiff. all the SMD capacitors needs to be replaced; that model belong to the period when Sony was using faulty SMD and plagued several of its portable audio devices for years to come.
