This is a tutorial for replacing the pinch roller on most SONY DD walkmans. List of walkmans to which this procedure applies: WM-DD, WM-DD1, WM-DD3, WM-DC2, WM-D3, etc. Practically it applies to any walkman where the head bridge tilts toghether with the cassette door. This is the pinch roller that will fit on all DD walkmans, even the ones without a tilting frame (except for the DD9, which uses smaller rollers): https://fixyouraudio.com/product/sony-tps-l2-pinch-roller/ 1. Remove the door itslef. It's held by 2 screws.
The tilting frame has 1 screw on each side to limit its movement. Unscrew them to the point that they clear the plastic support. You can also remove them completely. 2. Carefully tilt the frame while keeping one finger on each side to keep the ball bearings from flying out. Take the ball bearings and the springs out.
3. Take out the C clip holding the head bridge onto the frame. Now you can remove the head bridge entirely. Note there are 2 springs: the big one is on a hook and needs to be removed, the other is connected to the head.
4. Now you can remove the pinch roller and replace it. Pull the pin holding it in place downwards. 5. When installing the new pinch roller, put a little bit of oil inside the new pinch roller sleeve. This will assure quiet FF/REW, without squeeling (the roller is in contact with the tape at all times on these models). 6. Put the pin back toghether and reassembler the pinch roller onto the head bridge.
7. Reassemble the pinch roller onto the head bridge. The small black spring is connected between pinch roller and head. The large one has 2 hooks: the lower one goes into the hole in the head bridge, the upper hook goes into the cassette holding frame. 8. Put the springs back together and put a little grease on top to hold the ball bearings in place. 9. Before putting the cover back, tilt the cassette holding mechanism in place, put the unit in play and clean the new pinch roller and capstan from any grease from you fingers with a cotton swab and alcohol.
Thank you Valentin for posting this! I’ve been looking for just such a tutorial in the past and never found an adequate one. I would love to see/read a little more detail on the removal and reinstalling of the springs that have to be removed to do this, as that seems to be one of the most tricky and delicate parts (particularly the thin black spring). I’d also love to hear more on removing the pinch roller pin. You suggest it is about just pulling it out in the direction shown, but I’ve read before that this can be difficult, including horror stories about the pressure required to do it distorting the metal frame of the assembly. (Perhaps that was in the case of people who have tried this without fully removing the smaller frame holding the pinch roller first.) Thank you again for this great information!
I'm glad you find it useful ! This is the reason I decided to do it, because I saw discussions in the past about the difficulty of replacing the pinch roller on these models. In my opinion, it's a pretty straight-forward process and there's not much that can go wrong except for the small ball bearings flying off. I will add some pictures with the springs and how they are installed to make the process even clearer. Pinch roller pins take a bit of force to be removed being press fitted; some may be more stubborn than others and require more force, but it can be done without any damage. Even if the frame gets a little bit deformed from the force, it can be bent back very easily. There are 2 possible methods of removing that pin: 1. Put the roller on a metal support that has a hole to accomodate the pin. After this you can put a philips screwdriver on top of the pin and hit the screwdriver with a pair of pliers: it will come out of the bottom. 2. Pull the pin from below with a pair of pliers, while also rotating it left and right. I'll try to make a picture to illustrate this more clearly. Depending on the model, on some pinch rollers the pin is all the way in and it cannot be pulled, so only method 1 will work. But on these models and others like WM-3, WM-D6C it can be pulled from below.
Excellent work, thank you Valentin. On the subject of the springs... in my dreams I have a white workroom where every pinged spring and cannoned-off bearing is visible under the remorseless glare of arc lights. In reality I do have a corner in a carpeted garage but the carpet is black and everything, absolutely everything, that gets loose involves a major search. And I am always amazed at just how far a near-weightless screw or washer can bounce. <sigh> Cheers!
@DutchNick I remember a couple of years ago, a spring bounced off a mechanism and it took hours to find it. Of course, it wasn't the first or the last time it happened, but I have tried to learn some lessons in how to reduce the risk of parts flying off. What I have found to be a very good practice is to keep a finger on top of the washer, C-clip or spring that I'm removing. Sometimes just manipulating washers with a pair of tweezers can make them fly off if you put too much force on them. By the way, I'm glad you like the thread. More are on the way regarding walkman restoration tutorials.
Another home run thread, @Valentin ! Just went through this process myself a few weeks ago on my WM-D3. I ended up making a homemade jig using the method you’ve described here - I.e. drilling a small hole in a piece of wood, through which the pin can be hammered. Afterwards, I did some digging around and ended up purchasing one of these watch pin removal sets from Amazon (~$6) that should hopefully help make that process even easier next time. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002Q8AJSM?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title Thanks for all of the info!
@Valentin - just spotted the additional photos you posted here of the springs and correct positioning on the mechanism: thank you for adding these, very clear! I think I am ready to tackle this on my DD3...
I just replaced the pinch roller on the WM-D3 in my personal collection, so decided to take additional pictures as this one has an additional spring, but also to clarify how everything is put together.
Some more pictures in regard to the carriage ball bearings and springs, as not all people understood this part completely. Each ball bearing has a spring below it that keeps the ball bearing in tension against the carriage. There are a couple of steps in which one needs to be very careful: - when tilting the carriage to remove the roller, you need to keep your finger in the ball bearing area and release the carriage very slowly. Otherwise the ball might fly out; - after tilting the carriage to the point that it is no longer in contact with the balls, you should remove both ball bearings and springs with a pair of tweezers (some grease on it will help) and put them aside or in a plastic zip bag for safety; - when re-installing the carriage, it is important to put grease above the spring and also cover the bearing in grease, because surface tension will hold them toghether much better, hence lowering the chances of flying out; - also when re-installing it is important to apply force on the ball bearing on the center and not push them more than 1mm, as the rest will be done by the carriage itself;
Thanks if you will ever do something like this for other walkmans (aiwa, panasonic - I tried on SX33 and I broke the thing roller sits on, it's made with plastic and even being careful I broke small part) I will be thanking you 100 times
@Raul I usually took pictures and made guides to those that I thought were more difficult to do. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll add the SX33 on a list, if I receive one for servicing I will take pictures. I won't buy that unit for my personal collection in the future cause it's not from the ones I like.
Roller's are probably the same as in SX1V, S5, S5V, S11, S22V, and close to end of the S line like S95/S75. Of course I didn't mean you should buy it, If you happen to repair one that is
I know you did not mean that. Just wanted to say that it's unlikely to have one in my hands because people usually pay for servicing on more premium units, like the Sony DD line. And it's a unit that's not on my wishlist for personal collection either.
Sure but there are Panasonics with Amorphous heads like S80 which are considered premium. There is a chance
