Hi! I’m restoring a wm-af605. I cleaned it and changed the belt . But I cannot figure out why it is vomiting my cassettes magnetic band ? I guess , the two middle wheels are not turning fast enough or strong enough ? (Sorry for my bad English ) i posted 3 videos here showing the problem. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lnr9FNxcu3ykN8mWvdt3_z0QOds8mh5u if anyone could help it would be amazing! Thank you !!
Interesting fault... my first problem is with how you are operating it in your videos. The bridge or head/pinch roller assembly puts pressure on the lid when it is shut to add proper tension to the rollers and head. Without the lid on the cassette compartment, the head/pinch roller assembly wants to 'hinge up' out of position. This can cause all kinds of weird things to happen, including the tape to stop playing. You should either put the lid back on, or put pressure on those two metal tabs to simulate the lid being on. After ensuring that is good, I would go through this checklist: Make sure pinch rollers are new and replaced Make sure head and tape path is clean Ensure all old belt residue was removed, and that no sticky rubber from the old belt got on any gears or moving parts Check to make sure gumstick battery corrosion didn't get on the moving parts. Even if you think an old battery didn't leak much, finding spots on nearby metal pinions, axles, and gears is very common Begin removing gears, checking for cracks and old hardened grease. Also check the clutch (spring and plastic collet should be present if this is a applicable model) This is fairly comprehensive, should be able to get you started!
May I ask you another question about another Walkman ? i have a wm-55 that constantly auto reverse when playing . Do you have an idea where to search the problem ? Thanks in advance!
Another interesting fault! You might make a separate thread about it, making sure to put pictures of the inside/outside of the unit… I know nothing about your unit, or what’s happened to it, but this troubleshooting guide comes to mind, and is more for any Walkman: 1. Check for battery leakage or corrosion inside. This is once again common and is a main cause of problems. Many times, a previous owner will clean the battery compartment thinking that they are removing all corrosion, but internal leakage is left behind… this is the same with water damage. 2. Check those capacitors. Some of those really short through-hole electrolytic caps can leak at the base causing odd symptoms to begin. You can check for leaky caps by doing a visual inspection of the board, or heating the capacitor’s solder connection and checking for the dead fish smell. Also, you can ‘chain symptoms’ too, like if the audio is distorted, and the auto-reverse is dodgy, plus one channel is louder, you can deduce bad capacitors are probably the cause. 3. For auto-reverse to work in these older walkmans, there are a few components at play: First, the player is usually aware of what side is active by the tape position switch, which is usually A, OFF, B., or sometimes just A,B. It’s a switch on the main board with three positions or two positions depending upon the model. These switches fail sometimes when they are left in one position for years… I’d suspect it. Second, the player has auto-stop, which will tell the unit that the tape is at the end, so it’s time to switch to the other side. I’m fairly sure this is a clutch system integrated into the take-up reel idler on your model, and that it can get old and slip to a point that the unit thinks the tape needs to be reversed… I’d check it. Finally, there is usually a solenoid that clicks to toggle those positions on the mechanism to activate. The mechanism responds by spinning a rotating ‘master’ gear. The motherboard toggles the solenoid based on the position of the tape position switch, and the auto-stop. What you need to do is check these things out… make sure the switch is working right, and that auto-stop mechanism is working, and check the solenoid. FYI, here’s a great thread on the WM-55 that has some inside pics of the mechanism, and this user also had issues with the idler/clutch: https://www.stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-55-playback-problem.7003/ Hope this helps!
