Older guy with a sony walkman mw-d3

Hi all, I am new to this website thought not new to hi fi gear and music. I have been listeing to records since the mid 60's and over the decades i never came across a good portable cassette player until now. I found one in my basement when cleaning up. It had been my dad's, he's long gone, and I would love to have it restored. I have tons of records ~ 10,000+, R2R tapes, and 500-600 cassettes. And I hope I can get the WM-d3 restored. I am in my 70's and time has taken its toll, so vision and hand issues prevent me from attempting something like this. I have been reading the forums for a while and it seems like a great focused community with shared interests.
Normo

 

@Normo - welcome! WM-D3 is a great find, and 10k+ of records - Wow!!! What is your favorite turntable?

 

Welcome to Stereo2go Normo

 

Nothing fancy, I have a bunch of old used tables I picked up for very little over the years and I like the dual 1219, and a technics Sl 1200 mkII. Norm

 

SL-1200 is what I have too, ever since my Keel-ed/Naim-ed Linn Sondek burned and went to analogue heaven...

 

I used to make my own tapes, I recorded LPs I had and I went to yard sales and picked tapes that were privately recorded on but of good quality. I don't really have any early professinally prerecorded tapes. I had always figured that if I like the music I would just keep the tape some one else made or reocrd over it if I wanted to. Life got in the way and the tape deck of yesteryear died. I have a couple of decks I purchased over the years that were "not working" but I never got around to fixing any of them and now that kind of work is out of my league. Folk, rock, jazz and some country are my preferences but I am wiling to be open to lots of stuff. I am going through a lifetimes worth of acquired stuff since significant life changes have occurred.
Norm

 

Welcome Norm. I can relate to your experience of the basement clean and cassette finds. Recently did a full house clean and prep for sale for my mother who needed to go into aged care. She had lived by herself since 1976 and had a stash of TDK cassettes from the late 70's mostly recorded classical music and many others unused. Some pre recorded classical ones I decided to retain as well.

Now your D3 will probably only need the infamous Center Gear replacing as you will no doubt hear a loud "knocking" sound when it's playing or in FWD and REW. Provided it didn't have batteries left in it you're in luck. Not much else fails on any of these Walkman Pro units.
As for getting it repaired and fully serviced that depends a bit on where you live. In the US or EU there are services available where you send your Walkman to the repairer for an agreed price and it's returned to you when refurbished. It can take a while for the turnaround as a lot of people are interested in DD and D3, D6 and D6C Walkman from the 80's. Quality never goes out of fashion as they say. Someone on the forum will tell you who they have had their Walkman repaired by I'm sure. I'm lucky enough to work with an electronics engineer who likes a challenge and has rebuilt about 30 of my collection for me.

 

I think it will need a full going over. I supsect a belt is gone since it will play for 1-2 seconds and then stops and when I remove the cassette a lot of the tape has been"spooled" out of the cassette and I have to manually rewind it. It hasn't been used since the 1980s and fortunately was stored without batteries!
Norm

 

OK. So no belt in the D3 they are basically a modified DDII with a record feature. If tape is spooling off it's most likely the small reel gear which drives the take up spool. These tended to crack as they aged and then slip when there is any load on the take up spool. Parts are readily available. I did a D3 restoration several years ago and replaced the center gear and that small reel gear but that was all it needed.
Shouldn't be too expensive to get it up and running.

 

I can give you a few years Normo, I'm 75 and live in the UK