I came here to post a quick contribution on a WM2 topic I found useful. But apparently I can't just blurt out into a comment for my first post. So here I am, hello, I'm Sandy. I run a small YouTube channel for handheld gaming, but sometimes I get bored with that and I just make whatever I want content wise. And while down a tangent rabbit hole one day I found out that cassettes were still a thing! So after maybe 25 years away from cassettes I was up my attic digging out my cassette collection and failing to find my personal stereos. So I bought a FIIO CP13, which is a modern one. But that wasn't enough so I bought a heap of nostalgic old broken ones and fixed hardly any. At a low eb, I spotted a WM2 needing work, put in a cheeky offer and wow, I fixed it and I love it. But I had concerned about the center gear. So found a topic here and now I want to contribute to it.
Its in my bio, but here it is for easy access. https://www.youtube.com/@handheldgaming4life I'm mostly gaming, but more recently taken a shine to some fine cassette playback so I'll likely revisit my youth with some choice content.
Just so you know, I've made thousands of videos across these five YouTube accounts that you can read about here. Mostly boomboxes some walkmans and the rest well LOL http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads...istory-2678-video-links-5-779-715-views.9608/
Well my walkman WM2 is now complete, its got the carry case and a battery cover. But it definitely still needs work. Seems long tapes like Erasure The Circus which appears to be a long cassette plays ok for a bit then drags and gets slow. Seems too much for the old motor to pull through smoothly? Works a treat on my JVC system though. So its not the tape. Next project is transfer the working guts from the grey unit to the silver. And replace the belt which is pretty much open heart surgery for the poor thing. Soldering and screws. The silver was sold as needing belts but it was way more broken than that. Best got it partly working but it wasn't playing just destroying tapes. But the silver is in lovely outward condition. The grey is technically an SX35 not a 25 but thats the same thing but with external controls which were not included. The grey one looks like it fell out of a pocket at speeds, very scratched. I'm hopefully i'll get it working again.
Sometimes the belts are NOS and just a little too hard to grip on the last part of the tape. Otherwise if any chunks of the old belts are left in there, they can turn to a tar-like goo and that will also slow down the movement. I had a motor in my record cleaner go bad, it just needed some lube on the shaft and some cleaning to get the dirt off of it. Cool channel, I remember when the Metal Football Game took over the world in 78, that one was fun, the II version was funnier and the Coleco Head to Head was also a blast.
I picked my belts up from DeckTeck on ebay. They seem to advertise as new and the belt definitely seemed in new condition. Plays shorter tapes perfectly but some older long tapes really struggle, either don't turn or play slow, some even struggle to ff or rwd. But on my big dedicated hifi they play fine. Could the motor on my little old classic WM2 just be a bit tired?
Motor could be tired. Yes. Also, when you're in there you could also use a syringe styled lubricating oil on all the rotating parts just a drop would be just fine for each item that rotates. That could possibly help everything to rotate a bit better and also remove the old grease if any and replace it with oil.
Well I've stripped and carefully cleaned this poor old WM2 more times than I care to admit but I think I've got it nailed now. I degreased it all again. Used fan oil on spindles, tiniest of drops and then white grease on gears, just the lightest of smear. Cleaned belt and made sure it was on perfectly straight with no obvious twists. I also gave the Azimuth the tiniest of tweaks and the speed control needed dialing in marginally but it's a bit imprecise so I went full range on a couple of times before settling on what my ear feels is near perfect. What do you know all tapes I've tested seem to run very very well. Gonna call that a completed project, aside from the bloody 3d battery cover which falls off too often. Wish I could find an affordable genuine one. Now I'm working on my classic (not vintage) Panasonic RQ-SX25. Used 3 units to get 1 working one. Pristine case, pristine frame and very good but not pristine mechanism (belts replaced too). Its a bit wow/fluttery but I'm hoping that with a bit of exercise it'll bed in like the WM2 did after its long slumber. Not really much adjustment can be done on these later units.
Meanwhile, I'm listening to dire straits Love over Gold album Yeah, another real selfie playing on a Sanyo m7770K.
I honestly can't believe how well classic hardware that's languished in a drawer for maybe 20 years and is then butchered by me comes back to life. My wobbly SX25 is now playing close to perfect in one direction, and in the other its not far off.
While it stays completed... I thought I was done with my WM2, just time to enjoy it, but then it broke.
Sounds like my skid-steer, fix one hydraulic hose, a different one breaks. Good thing there are only like 21 of them but they can take hours to get to.
