Hi all - got a WM-10 on eBay a while back and replaced the badly damaged belt. That part is working great (manually), however, unfortunately no power is getting to the unit! The battery light is also not lit up. The area near the battery gets warm and on the DC convert unit but nothing spins. Battery compartment/connections are clean and not corroded, a fresh battery was used, and all connections were cleaned and look to be good. I also cleaned the leaf contacts and made sure they were actually making contact - was able to do this based on the instructions in the manual. Unfortunately I'm not well rehearsed in working on electronic boards so I'm out of options at this point. Any ideas? Thanks!
Did you have headphones plugged in? There is a switch in the headphone socket so that power is only supplied when they are plugged in. Check if this switch is working correctly.
Yes, I've tried a few different pairs of headphones and no dice. How can I check if the switch is working properly?
Being similar to a wm 20 ... try looking here if some photos can help you http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-20.5573/
I'm not sure how to even remove the white front cover - trying to expose the pinch roller and head mechanism.
Things shouldn't get warm. There's perhaps an electrical issue. Now that's the annoying bit with these models. No, you can't remove the white front cover. It's the mechanism that you need to remove from the chassis. Quite fiddly, but not actually that difficult if you have done it a few times. You remove the buttons, which comes out a whole big piece, the yo have access to the integrated head & pinch roller assembly. That must be removed as well if you want to change the roller.
Here are some photos for reference. Let me know if anything seems weird. I’m going to attempt to take things apart...unfortunately there was a stripped screw northwest of the middle gold gear. I had to drill it out and hopefully that won’t need to come out completely because the bottom part is stuck. Ugh
Looks very clean and nothing wrong at first glance. Check the continuity on connections to the headphone jack. I've had some with very tiny solder cracks. Regarding disassembly, the manuals available online for the WM-10/20 (the green "Troubleshooting Guide") don't provide too much information. Get the manual for the WM-30 which disassembles in exactly the same way (they basically only have a different case).
Hi Jon , Try to check for shorted C805 (220mf 4v) capacitor at DC-DC converter board using a multimeter. When this capacitor is shorted the battery voltage flows directly to earth which explains the generated heat . If that fails or after replacing a shorted C805 the problem remains , test the nearby transistors. If C805 needs replacement it will be difficult to find an electrolytic capacitor at these exact dimensions to fit at the PCB , then your best bet is to find a tantalum capacitor that fits , of the same value. Below a photo of the actual capacitor that I had replaced to my WM-10 and its position on the PCB schematics.
