Hello! I recently acquired a WM-D3 with a cracked center gear. With parts from mihokm on eBay, I replaced the rubber capstan ring, small reel gear, counter belt and of course, the center gear. I also used oil (a fine sewing machine oil) and grease (teflon) where applicable based on mihokm's DD series restoration guide. As is shown in the video linked below, sometimes when I press play, the mechanism doesn't engage properly, or it will make a grinding noise while it plays. Fast forward or rewind will sometimes fail to engage, or when it does, it will stop after a while, as if it doesn't have enough power. I've measured the W&F with WfGUI and a 3Khz test tape, yielding 0.2-0.5%, but with a periodic fluctuation that is sometimes audible when playing music. The degree of fluctuation seems to vary from play to play - sometimes pressing play it can work quite well, while other times pressing play it can be quite audible. I'm guessing it's related to the other problems. All testing is done with a cassette inserted. It's not that different without a cassette inserted, but I can do more testing without if needed. Video (54 seconds, 24.5MB webm): https://mega.nz/file/sJNnSTLR#BdO7BpTw5hOJgIzDlO4hdoZYbk-mM9jttSTbWiDf36c I have been messing with both the motor alignment and the capstan wheel adjustment screw! I had the same problems before the adjustments and so that's why I tried it. I was definitely able to make it worse that way, but I haven't been able to make it better than about what is shown in the video. Maybe I just need to tinker with those some more, I don't know. My other thought is that the center gear arm needs to be bent up or down if some gear is not aligned properly, but I wouldn't know what to look for, and I don't want to break anything, so I'd like some input first. Any ideas?
One thing I had done wrong, I had over-tightened this screw: It seems like it works best if it's just tight enough to prevent the gear from wobbling, but no tighter. With this small change, the mechanism engages reliably every time, but unfortunately the grinding noise is still there, so I suspect I have some more problems. W&F seems to have been more or less fixed with this, though, will probably measure it again soon. edit: oh and, fast-forward and rewind are still not 100% reliable, they sometimes stop early, so definitely something is still wrong. I just wish I knew what caused the grinding noise.
