Hi, I have replaced my belt and pinch rollers from fixyouraudio and my WM-EX1 has been functioning well. But, after 6 months it seems that the functions like BL skip, AMS,and music scan is not functional at all. The BL skip function does this thing where it would trigger then fast forward through the whole cassette and didn't stop at the start of the song. Right now the walkman still plays, fast forward and rewind perfectly(although i have to turn off the bl skip function). I've tried using the function mentioned earlier on several cassette and it doesn't work at all. It used to work fine couple months back. Things I've have done: Replace belt and pinch rollers Clean the tape head and pinch rollers Things i've haven't done: Demagnitize tape head Lubricate mechanism What i wanted to know before i dive in is this: Is this capacitor related problem or lubrication problem? or something else? Is there any tutorial on how to lubricate walkman or disassemble EX1( or maybe similar mechanism)? Which type of lubricant to use for capstan bearing and the gear pieces?
I had a WM-FX1 a few years back (just an EX1 with an FM radio) and it was an awesome player. Mine had the grey with gold color combo. I sold it on to someone who wanted it more badly than I, but maybe I can help here given I spent a lot of time with that mecha. What I love about the EX1/FX1 mechanism is the covered capstan design, I think that design is really smart, especially given the possibility for dust and dirt from everyday use to get around the capstan/roller. From what I remember, the unit doesn’t draw the head forward with regular rewind/fast forward. When blank skipping or detecting the next track, it must place the head next to the tape to quickly read the audio contents as it moves the tape along. If the head isn’t perfectly aligned, to where it is right up against the tape when scanning but not close enough to push the pinch roller on the capstan, it will not detect any sound, so it will not trigger a stop and then play over a certain track. I would remove the cassette door and see how the mecha is working with that head/pinch roller assembly. If you had to remove the head during your refurbishment, this is a common cause. In a perfect world, AMS doesn’t work all of the time, and my EX77 always had an edge over my FX1 in reliability… Being that it was made in 1994 and has a thin design, the EX1 doesn’t use any electrolytic caps, so unless you have a shorted tantalum or ceramic cap, you should be fine with caps. What you should look for is corrosion from the battery or liquid damage left inside the unit. Those Ni-Cd gum sticks love to spread their corrosion all inside of these things, even if it seems like they didn’t leak much or it all stayed in the battery compartment. Also, even one drop of a corrosive liquid can break traces on these boards, so visually inspecting the board will eliminate that concern. You will need to desolder the board from the mechanism and physically take it out. If you were really interested in troubleshooting the board, you could get another EX1, swap the board over, and see if the problem goes away. Adding new lubricant is important, but removing the old grease/oil is key as it gets hard over the years and can cause parts to stick, move with extra resistance, or grind against other materials. Q-tips and isopropyl should take care of removal of the old grease. there is a pretty ok YouTube video on the EX1… here. Hope this helps!
I like EX1 because of the portability and the door mechanism which made it easy to change cassette. Also, the video you sent seems to be what im looking for when disassembling.I will definitely look into the head alignment and will also check under the board for battery residues/old grease. Thanks for the providing detailed information. I will be working on my EX1 soon.
Leaving an update here. (Also encountered new problems) I have finally got time to start working on my ex1 and it seems that i have encounter a problem on it. It seems the the walkman would trigger auto-reverse if the cassette is at the beginning which seems odd. It would also be in constant auto-reverse if i have bl skip on. The tape would then play normally if i fast forward it abit past the beginning. Afer i encountered the problem stated above. I decided to remove to logic board since i thought it was lubrication problem. I was then proceeded to wiped off old grease that was dried on the gear mechanisms which after that i applied a small amount of grease back.After that i soldered the logic board back then tested it and problem seems to went away. However, the auto-reverse problem came back again and i also encountered another problem. It seems that when i fast forward the gear noise is quiet as it should but when rewinding tapes it seems that the gear noise is loud and the motor also whines loudly. Small note: AMS, music scan works correctly now. Auto-reverse would trigger at the end of tape as it should. (somehow it also triggers at beginning of tape also) Werid one here: If i were to play side A of tape and fast forward it then switch to play side B the WoW/Flutter happens and made the music unlistenable( sometimes the player would stop automatically).
This is actually quite common. At the beginning of the tape, more torque is needed to pull the tape across because of the heavy supply wheel (all of the tape is on the supply reel and not the take-up reel). This is also why fast forwarding a tape at the beginning is slower. My suspicion is that the unit is auto-reversing because the tape is not actually moving. Logically, the only condition where the auto reverse can be triggered is when the solenoid is activated, and that will only happen when the tape has stopped moving. Ofc, thats provided the control IC chip is working. This also seems to support the idea that the problem is mechanical. While it is normal for FF/REW to be slightly different (a lot of tape on one reel, not much on the other leads to this difference in torque/speed), there should never be a lot of resistance or motor whine with a well-lubercated mechanism. What you should do to test further, is take the tape and fast forward it to the middle where there is an equal amount of tape on both reels, then toggle between FF/REW and record the mechanisms behavior. If you still have that difference in resistance, you need to remove the gears from the unit and check for stuff that can cause resistance. Again, sound like your tape tension is too low. Some things to try: Change cassettes. I have had cassettes that worked fine in a regular tape deck, but had too much resistance for a Walkman. Trying a new cassette will mitigate that risk Check the belt. I know you just replaced it, but I've had Walkmans with the thin belts stretch my new replacements out because a poorly lubercated mechanism put too much strain on them. Check the clutch. One of the large dark gears in this photo has a nylon/felt clutch pad underneath, check it to make sure it still has enough tension. Check the capstans. The capstans in your EX1 are closed type which means contaminants that get in at the bottom can get stuck in the sheaths. I've seen oxide build up enough to cause unnecessary resistance. CHECK THE SPRINGS! The pinch rollers are placed onto roller holders, and those are pressed against the capstan with a spring. It is really common for the springs to become weak. Stretch the straight 'finger' that comes off the spring out a bit. More tips are here: https://www.reddit.com/r/walkman/comments/qskfi5/ex1_autoreversing_during_silence_at_beginning_of/ This guy seems to think the problem is that the tape tension is too low for the unit to pull the thicker 'leader' across the tape path. Good guess I'd say
And, spool the cassette up and down a few times and position it in the middle of the tape so that the reels are almost the same size.
Hi again, I have checked the mechanism again and wanted to know if it is normal for this wheel to have a notch to it? because i have noticed that the wheel is different from others inside the mechanism. Could this be that a small part of the wheel split/cracked off it? or is it supposed to have small notch to it? ps. what tools do i need to remove it? it doesn't have a plastic washers on it.
Update on the progress. (problem found!) I have found the problem now that i have a donor machine. I decided to swap over the capstan wheels from a donor machine and it worked! The old capstan turns out to be dull and looks polished. I want to know if there's anyway to roughen up the capstan again? i would rather reuse the original capstan if possible. Thanks in advance good sir.
Capstan can be roughened with ferric chloride. Ideally you should roughen only the part which comes in contact with the tape. This can be achieved by soaking a cotton swab in the solution and rubbing it against the capstan while rotating it. Rotation can be achieved either by letting the walkman run (you will need to activate the tape in switch for that) or you can rotate it manually with your finger. After the roughening clean the capstan with IPA to remove any residue.
Thanks so much everyone for helping me upon this matter. I have finally roughened the capstan shaft with ferric chloride and the results are successful. ps. I love this community, everyone is very helpful. Thanks
Hey for how long did you put the ferric chloride on the capstan for? I’ve always tried it but never seemed to notice much of a difference visually. Maybe I’m holding it to the capstan for too little?
If you do it while the device is running (so capstan speed is fast) you need to keep the cotton swab for 5-10 seconds. You will see the capstan going from mirror shiny to a very matte gray. If you do it while rotating the flywheel by hand or just immerse the capstan in the substance, you need to hold it for a bit longer, like 15-20 seconds or so. However do note that on many of these EX series the capstans are roughened from the factory with a sandpaper-like texture and they're not shiny as the typical ones. In which case you may not see much of a difference visually unless the capstan is in really bad condition. Personally, have not seen these EX series to require roughening exactly because of the micro grain surface
Thanks so much! I always figured I wasn’t doing it right as after dipping the capstan in ferric chloride it would still look shiny, from your post it turns out I wasn’t holding it in there for long enough. I always assumed the difference would not be visible to the human eye. Thanks again!
Bit of an update 1 year after the successful repair on machine. I think I have found out why the AMS scan didn't work in my case. I went and replace another capstan wheel again from a new donor machine i bought recently. It seems that the new donor machine capstan look very sharp and lightly used compared to mine. My previous capstan was roughen with ferric chloride unevenly causing 40hz difference between N/R side. This made me think that the AMS also rely on specific capstan sharpness to make the tape head to detect blank gap in cassette correctly. Currently the machine is working correctly with capstan from new donor machine. All functions are working correctly. The AMS scan pretty much works everytime. Although, i don't think i will reuse my old capstan. But, is there a way/tools to correctly measure sharpness of the capstan? Just out of curiosity, Is there a way to save the old uneven capstan?
Apart from roughening it with ferric chloride, don't think there's much else you can do. Original micro grain surface cannot be restored. If surface is very uneven, some sanding (800, then 2000 grit) before etching will also help. Due to mounting on this model, it may be easier to sand it manually with flywheel/capstan assy removed. One important aspect is to not sand/etch the 2 surfaces that go into brass bearings. It may need the W&F to be below a certain figure or another possibility is the previous uneven capstan was messing up the azimuth.
Early AMS was just a simple mute detection. It requires a stable output in order to detect ‘mute’. My guess is that too high W&F, or a misaligned tape path, do not provide reliable input for the IC. As during music search rewind or fast forward the Walkman is in playback mode, the tape will be passing the head much quicker. Does it result in more wear (and tear) besides higher power consumption?
Thanks for more knowledge about these methods you mentioned. I will probably try them out again and maybe have one of my donor machines be assembled/fixed. There is wear and tare on the tape. I've notice that there is more tape residue on the tape head when using music search since its fast forwarding/rewinding in playback mode. I think wear and tare on the tape and the tape head is to be expected. It might contribute to tape head wear since one of my donor machine have slight wear marking on the head. Thanks for all the replies. These gained knowledge will definitely helps when doing a repairs in future.
