Hi all. I just got this very nice Sony WM-501 which needs some repair. The supply reel was stuck, due to sticky grease in the gears. So I needed to take the cover off the supply reel in order to clean the grease with IPA and put new oil in. So far so goo, the reel spins freely again. Now the problem. When I lifted the cover, a spring (part number 139) fell out. And now I don't know how to install it exactly. And I'm also not sure how to install the lever assembly (part number 138) in conjunction with this spring. Could you please help me, maybe with some photos of the spring installed? According to the service manual, the WM-102 uses the same mechanism (maybe younger models too). Thanks in advance.
Thank you Silver965. That should help. I just need get it back together now… EDIT: SUCCES! Thank you very much, I had it apart dozens of times already, and it never wanted to work properly. And I was frightened to break something. Now I only need to wait for the belt to arrive…
Well, I forgot to post an update. So the belt from Marian at fixyouraudio.com arrived a week ago already. I placed it in the transport and my Sony WM-501 works perfectly now. I just had to adjust the speed a little, since it was running too slow. After a few days and hours of use, I had to readjust the speed back, a little slower, though. I think the drive and new belt had to "break in". I only had one little issue that has been solved also. From the beginning, the lid was a little bit wonky to manipulate. I didn't really look into it, since I was focused on the transport issues. At final assembly, a random screw fell out of the Walkman. After looking where it came from, I found that it was the screw which holds the left hinge to the case. The whole hinge had came loose. Removed the lid again, and fixed the hinge nice and tight, and checked the other hinge. And now the lid is opening like it always should have, I believe. So, the sound of this unit is very good. Marian's belt is amazing, it is thinner than the belt that was fitted. Maybe it had been replaced already? I didn't find any marks on the screws, but I didn't make any neither. DBB aka Megabass works fine, but not really needed with modern headphones. Volume control works perfect too. And Dolby is tracking correctly.
