Hello from southern California! Weird times, right? I'm new to the forum and excited to be part of it. My brother and I have been working on fixing our parents' old walkmans as a sort of quarantine project. My brother managed to get his WM2 up and running, but I'm having some trouble. I would really love to get my dad's old Walkman DD working. I replaced the broken center gear with the help of mihokm's brilliant work, but the player is still dead. I'm worried it's a dead servo controller, and I really need tech help on this one. I don't know how to test if that's the problem, and I don't think I'm precise enough at soldering to replace the thing if it's toast. Any advice would be appreciated. (If you can point me in the direction of good audio repair in Los Angeles, I'd also be obliged. Might need it.) Otherwise, thank you for having me. If and when I can get this thing to function, I'll be sure to jump further into the forums.
Its not an easy answer neighbor did the motor work before changing the central gear? Did you try battery and charger both? Is there any leakage or corrosion on battery contact or on the board? For years I searched for an audio technician in southern California and I couldn't find one. Getting help from other members is the best advice I can give you. We have members who are expert in repairing electronics, and we also have some members who talk a lot (like me ) anyway, welcome and I hope you find the solution to repair your walkman.
Welcome! Get a good multimeter to check for voltages. I think most of the DD Series Service Manuals are posted in several places around the internet. My Mate Vince on YouTube fixed a few Walkmans without any knowledge of them, I'd watch his long videos to get a good grasp on troubleshooting them.
Thank you both for the warm welcome! Motor didn't work before the gear was replaced, so I'll admit I didn't expect it to just magically function... but a man can dream. There was some battery corrosion on the contacts, but I've cleaned it off to the best of my ability with vinegar. Sadly, I don't have one of the proprietary cables to plug it directly into the wall. (Also, when my brother was messing with it, he pulled one of the battery pack wires out of its solder. But for the time being, I can just hold the wire against the contact.) I think I found a service manual for the original DD, so I'm going to have to noodle around with that some. I know My Mate Vince from some of his Nintendo Switch repair videos, so that's not a bad place to start either. While I'm here, I do have a slightly easier question... Would anyone be able to offer any suggestions about replacement pads for the headphones? I have a pair of MDR-4L1S phones, and both sets of ear pads I bought turned out to be the wrong size. These 1980s pads sure didn't age as well as the speakers did.
There's a Vietnamese dude named Andy Huynh who has a repair shop in Santa Ana. He has repaired several of our boomboxes, but I don't know if he's ever worked on a walkman. http://alphatvcomputer.com/
DDs seem to be a pain to fix. Not much experience here, but I wish you and your dad's DD Walkman the best of luck
