Just looked at the video tutorial. It was satisfying to see you succeed !! I have a good feeling about this !!! Thanks for the great detailed video !!! Going to need some supplies !!! I'm going to take pictures as well. I'm also hoping to find that lost screw as I dismantle the whole thing. Have you identified the sound yet on the end of your video ? Thanks for this Christmas present !!! Happy holidays everyone !!!
Gear is glued as best I can, now let's hope the glue holds !!! Maybe a bit of clear tape round the gear, if that is at all possible, to ensure that the crack never opens again ?
One technique I have used before; not on Walkmans but when repairing broken Slot car (scalextric) guide posts was to soak a little piece of tissue in superglue and wrap it round the broken part (girls also do this sometimes on a broken nail)....anyhow it does work very well
I've fixed it !!!! Couldn't quite glue it properly, so I've used a bit of ducktape around it. And then most importantly , no spring !!! With the spring I couldn't get the mechanism to work. I've tested the working of the mechanism, about 60 times before I put it back together, so that probably means I fixed it good !!! I have a video, I'll post it tomorrow.
@AiwaDude, @16s I think the problem with the cracked piece, is not just that it is cracked, but also that maybe the piece has gotten tinner over the years of usage ? Because even when it was somewhat glued together, the combined gears didn't have the strength required to move the mechanism. And even after that with a bit of tape around the cracked section, the mechanism wouldn't move one bit. The main problem is because you have 3 pieces that can move separately, that all have to move as one. There's no logic to it. So you have the big white gear, then you have a washer, then comes a small gear on top of that. Those where the first 2 gears I taped together. Then I put some ducktape around the cracked gear ( not a small piece like before, but now a couple more times around it, so that the piece becomes a bit thicker ). At first I tried it with the spring combining the 2 gears, but somehow that didn't go so well. So I removed the spring and pressed the 2 gears together a hard as I could. So with that done, I had a piece that was moving as one, because it was taped and pressed together tightly. And that did it !! I've put the now single gear in place "et voila" it worked. I made it work about 35 times back and forth ( so that's 70 movements ) succesfully. All I can hope is, that the ducktape around the cracked piece doesn't become too thin, too fast. Only time will tell I guess. All that's left to do for me is put the walkman back together (I hope that all goes without problem) I'll post the video soon, so that you can see the working of the mechanism. Greetings, Soxbrother
Currently uploading the video, but meanwhile I've tested it with a tape and now I have a new problem !!! The tape plays way too fast now, I mean, it's like hearing the chipmunks sing !!! Can this be fixed ? Thanks in advance for the help
Your question on the video, as far as I understand, is if it is normal that autoreverse switches back to A-side after playing B-side a few seconds without a cassette loaded. My answer is yes, it is normal: there is an opto-sensor that checks that the reel rotates, and without a cassette it doesn't rotate on B-side. The sensor acts as if the end of the side of the cassette was reached, and autoreverse proceeds. Just check that all is OK with a cassette loaded.
@Ball000 Also a new issue I have is that with a tape inside and I press play it doesn't start playing right away, it's as if it needs a few seconds to think and then starts playing. With the tape inside, when I press play, it does nothing, then after 2 seconds it changes the direction and starts playing. I'll post a new video demonstrating this.
Video 1: https://flic.kr/p/DnrVge With the tape inside, when I press play, it does nothing, then after 2 seconds it changes the direction and starts playing the other direction. Video 2: https://flic.kr/p/2324Kp4 With the tape inside, I press play, then change the direction, then when I change the direction back it starts Fast Forwarding. Not normal !!! Back to the drawing board I guess. More problems now then before. 1) playback autoreverse issue 2) playback, chipmunk style 3) headphone when all the way in, it plays only left channel, pull it a bit back and you get the right channel, somewhere in between after lots of trying you get both channels.
Here a video so you can hear the awful sound it makes : https://flic.kr/p/21FvAoD Update : Something weird happened, after wiggeling the headphone jack back and forth to find both channels, suddenly the player plays at normal speed. Very curious... Going to test it further.
Another issue the player now suddenly has is that the tape has a bit of trouble keeping up with playing, as if it has trouble going through the capstan ? When the sound was in chipmunk style, I didn't notice it. Now it sounds like someone wants to scratch the tape, like you do with a vinyl, about every 5 to 10 seconds. Even had one time that the tape was eaten. I'm going to take the tape apart again and undo the changes I've made. Can @AiwaDude tell me if his player shows similar symptoms with the autoreverse mechanism ? So all I can think of is that my idea of tape the 3 gears as one, was wrong, even if that sounded unlogical. So maybe the gears do have to move seperately from each other and somehow provide enough pressure to move the autoreverse mechanism ? No clue how to remedy that, other than to try to glue the cracked part again and put the spring back.
I took it apart again. Removed the ducktape, but I did put a thinner piece of tape on it. I put the spring back. Put the whole thing back together. Seemed to work at first, but soon thereafter it didn't do anything anymore. So I took it apart for the 3rd time. (Perhaps the 3rd time's a charm ?) One funny side note, I've become an expert in dismanteling the aiwa. So one thing problematic with the spring, is that it wants to push the gears apart from eachother. I say problematic because if the top gear (largest gear) gets higher it doesn't connect to the other gears. Because the top gear has also cogs(teeth) on the inside of it. So that's what happened the 2nd time. The top gear was pushed up by the spring, even though the clip was in place. You would think that the clip would hold everything together. I also think that the 1st try, I didn't push the gear down enough, which resulted in a working autoreverse, but as soon as a tape was inserted it wouldn't play right away, so that was because the top gear didn't connect to the lower gears. You could ask how I could have secured the clip then ? Now for the 3rd try, I've put the ducktape back in place. Along with the spring. I've secured the clip and tried to fasten the clip has hard as I could, so I hope this time the clip holds. Maybe a bit of tape on top of the clip to secure it ? That's where I'm at for now. Time to get back to celebrating on New Year's eve. Best Wishes for 2018 !!!!
