Restoring and Fixing Up My New Sony WM-D6C

Discussion in 'Tech talk' started by George Bond, Sep 7, 2024.

  1. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    Hey all!

    I am new here and to this hobby as a whole, so I wanted to ask you "gurus" for some tips and recommendations. I got myself a Sony WM-D6C, which is in a great condition and has 0 visual damage, however, I assume that because of its age, this may not be the case on the inside.

    So far I have found one issue, which is that the auto shut-off feature doesn't work when the cassette reaches the end. Most of the times the play button doesn't pop out and the motor keeps working, or at least trying to based on the slight vibrations and quiet mechanical noise. Anyone has any ideas what the problem may be and whether it's an easy fix I can do myself or should I give it for repairs to someone else? Also, what tools would I need?

    Lastly, if you have any maintenance tips and recommendations I need or should do right now to prevent any future "surprises" and to get it even a little closer to its old glory, please do let me know.

    Sincerely,
    George Bond
     
  2. Helabaa

    Helabaa New Member

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    Everybody on vacation?
     
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  3. Kiwinut

    Kiwinut Member

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    Best advice I can give. Is give to an expert, these are not for the feint hearted. there are a couple here on this site.
    Also DONT use anything apart from batteries(eneloop rechargeable are great) also don’t use a plug in power adapter.
    Otherwise you will have an expensive paper weight.

    Cheers Kiwinut
     
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  4. Cassette2go

    Cassette2go Well-Known Member

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    Nah they probably got families and children and all kinds of stuff like that. Me I don't have any of that. I'm working on a diatone jr711 right now. I just found the belts for it and I'm in my my room and I'm resting and reading and I'll just post a picture of where I'm at LOL

    17257454840486920213023890602429.jpg

    Wow wide angle view. Yes that's my real foot left. No toes. So yes I'm handicapped and then we got boomboxes and we got home stereo speakers still in the box from 1983 and then the plastic containers on the shelf are all my couple hundred walkmans and then on the bed next to my foot of the two belts. I just got out of the bags that are closer to me of the flat belts and square belts. Is this too much information?
     
  5. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    Why shouldn't I use the power adapter? So far I've used the one that came with the player and it worked fine. It's not a Sony branded power adapter, but a Radioshack one. I heard about the polarity thing, but that fries your player right away, not after prolonged use, so mine would be already dead, no? Is there something else I don't know?
     
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  6. Cassette2go

    Cassette2go Well-Known Member

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    All right, well I'm here again for the umpteenth time saying how I had like $10,000 worth of walkman's in this one's container I have two d6 and two d6c and I never run my walkmans on anything but batteries. I never plugged them into the wall and rarely do I plug my boomboxes into the wall. I only plugged my home stereo into the wall. Enough said

    17257459652478747939498047673102.jpg

    Couple of dd9s couple of WM 800s WM ex9 wmx7 and the list goes on. I could be here all day but I got a boombox to rebuild or try.
     
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  7. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    Do you know anyone who could look at it for me? I currently live in Indiana and I'd prefer to give it to someone here or in a neighboring state by driving there. I'm not sure how mailing packages works in the US, since I am not from the US. Just started living here about a month ago.
     
  8. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    All of these are dead?! Why is it so dangerous?! Like, are there really no safe ways to use power adapters? Also, how does it kill the players? Is it the voltage or something else? Is it an instantaneous death or over time?

    Sorry for so many questions, but this is really scary.
     
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  9. Cassette2go

    Cassette2go Well-Known Member

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    It's not scary. It's just people being careful. There are different power adapters. Some use a full-way bridge. Some use a halfway bridge summer pulse modulated some are not. Some are regulated. Some are not. There's all kinds of wall adapters. Some are good. Some are bad. Some work some give clean electricity. Some give dirty electricity. I don't do any of those. Very simple. I invest in rechargeable batteries. End of story now. Let me show you a container. Yes a full container of batteries. Not going to sit here and go through each and every battery but I have a container of batteries
    17257490227067493727236800398523.jpg
    I even singled out the AA battery bag. Even those those are Duracell. I don't use those. I use any loop stupid phone won't spell any loop. Here is a picture of some in a Walkman which is a Sony wm-fq01 freak. Yep! 17257491358548143956980080792806.jpg
    Just use batteries and be done with it. You get everybody all excited when you say that you take your $700 Walkman and you plug it into the wall because the first time that you put in the wrong polarity or dirty voltage or whatever and you ruin that speed chip which can no longer ever be found anywhere in the world or in this galaxy to repair it then....
     
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  10. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    Hello sir. Again, sorry to keep bothering you and distracting you from the repair you're working on. Is there a way to tell if the power supply is safe? I've attached pictures of the power supply that came in with the Walkman and the previous owner used it too. I understand the idea of "it's safer to not use the power supply", but I'm curious how bad of an idea it would be to use this one? I used it once and it didn't fry the speed controller (at least I don't think it did) since it still plays just fine. Is it an instantaneous death, or more like overtime damage that will stack up?

    You also seem to be very experienced with these players. Would you happen to know what's the issue I'm facing here and what I can do to troubleshoot or fix it?

    Also, any check-ups or maintenance I need to do right now, since I had it for a few days and it's in a great condition? I want to make sure it runs well and works for long years to come.
     

    Attached Files:

  11. Kiwinut

    Kiwinut Member

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    Best advice EVER!
    Why risk it.

    Cheers Kiwinut
     
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  12. George Bond

    George Bond New Member

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    Correction, I meant it IS in a great condition.
     
  13. Cassette2go

    Cassette2go Well-Known Member

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    My forte of repair is boomboxes and cassette players but not necessarily walkman's. There are a lot of the people here to go to deeper depths and walkman's than I do far more knowledgeable than I am in as far as service and repair and maintaining a walkman's as I do not use walkmans that much. While I do have a lot of them and I repaired a few of them but only repair the ones that I use and I don't use my d6c or the d6 or the DD9 or any other high-end ones because I haven't gotten to that point yet. I still have about 300 boomboxes to sell service repair and get rid of before I get down to the walkman's and be diligent with repair and upkeep of those. There are a lot more people in this forum other than me that are far more knowledgeable about walkmans and repair and upkeep. You should wait and speak with them and or use the search feature in this forum for your model and or use Google. Best I can tell you is keep it clean. Change the belts. If you service it, remove the grease and change it to oil rather than grease because grease will gum it up and make it froze or not work right? Where is oil doesn't freeze up and so and so forth. Fixyouraudio.com is a great site to go visit and search your model.
     
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  14. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Here's a sticky thread on the WM-D6
    https://stereo2go.com/forums/thread...-this-before-plugging-in-any-dc-adaptor.7840/
    These tend to be one of the highly collectable models that only go up in value, especially when professionally tuned up, with care they are worth a small fortune.

    I don't know the WM-D6 insides but with component tape decks (the big ones), sometimes they have the same issues because of the belt for the tape counter. When the tape stops, the sensor reading the tape counter movement tells the motors to turn off. In most of my big deck repairs, the counter belt is still intact but they get hard or stretch just enough that they don't work correctly and the decks don't play right.

    This time of year is always slow around here, school is starting and people are spending the last few nice weekends outside, it will pick up in a few weeks.
     
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  15. dotneck335

    dotneck335 Active Member

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    "Why shouldn't I use the power adapter? "
    Deb 64 says:
    Many adapters put out much more than 6 volts; some as high as 7.6 volts! 6V is at, or beyond, the upper limit for the allowable supply voltage for this chip [CX20084]. The downside to switch mode supplies is that the DC output side is not totally isolated from the incoming mains. There is a class Y capacitor connecting the primary and secondary sides of the transformer, which provides AC coupling. This is to suppress RF interference. This results in a common mode high voltage (up to 290V Pk-PK in the UK) low current signal on the DC output plug. Because of the very low current it won’t produce a noticeable electric shock but it will destroy a CX20084 instantly.
     
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