Hey everyone, I only singed up initially because of this topic. I recently made an impulse cheeky bid on an ebay WM2. It was listed as broken, and it was filthy. Nicotine stains inside, dirt ingrained everywhere especially in the button wells. It was also splattered in various colours of paint. Perhaps owned by a trades person. For me the good news was a new belt got it working, but it was noisy in operation. So I stripped it down a bit, cleaned up everything I could. Spent hours on the shell getting it glowing again. Now it looks really respectable but still sufficiently beat up to be a daily driver. Then someone on a FB page asked if the center gear was cracked. This send me down the rabbit hole. Its been opened a couple more times to lube and get it working more quietly. I was happy with its performance but the threat of a bad center gear had me worried. So I found here and I'd like to give my info for the greater good if it helps. So my units serial number is 254845, not a super low number. it was the earlier FWD play button. It also however says Sony Walkman II. So not early and not late is my guess. I don't know about the IC, don't know where to look. But I think I can confirm I've got the entirely plastic center gear, and its perhaps the thinner one? I'm hoping you can give you're view. I can't upload a vid here, so here is a link to a Youtube upload I made.
Here is a couple of after pictures. I'm really pleased how its turned out and I don't think I'll ever get rid of this WM2.
Beautiful machine, so you didnt have a cracked centre gear? That's very unusual, good news is Mikholm makes spares it it does go after some use. Great to see these in daily action
Center gear is in great condition it seems, I carefully spun the copper/brass (whatever) flywheel round until I'd see the entirety of the plastic gear and its spotless. Are there sources for any other spares?
Playback is decent too. The longer I use it the quieter the unit is getting! My guess it was heavily used when new and then abandoned in a drawer for decades.
Have just purchased a unit from TradeMe with a suspended broken belt. When it arrives will give the details of what it is.
I purchased a WM-2 on eBay for $50 CAD about a week ago. It just arrived yesterday and I spent the day repairing it. I attached one of the listing photos. Yes, it was broken in half from one of the previous repair attempts. Thankfully the break was in a place such that I was able to not just glue the broken area, but also screw it into place to further secure it. This is ideal and practically invisible. I don’t think I’d notice the crack if I didn’t know it was there. I am so glad I was able to save it, and for a great price!!! For the Walkman taxonomists in this thread below is the specifics of the Walkman I have. I included a photo of the circuit board as well. Serial No. - 330569 Gear type - solid plastic, non cracked Auto motor stop - No Play button type - FWD Name print - Walkman II
What a find funny is I posted asking how hard were these to work on (on a Facebook page). And was told practice on cheap stereos first before attempting on the WM2 and take my time. But the WM2 is just so well designed at coming apart. Certainly for the old WM2 that I 'have.
Thanks for sharing! We are working on adding PCB and mech photos to Walkman.land, can I use your photos?
Latest addition, now have the belt clip. Kinda expensive but still cheapest I could find and it works well. And the 3D printed cover, it doesn't hold when no batteries in place, but does seem to hold when batteries are in place. Looks ok.
All was going so well. Until today, I fired a cassette into my WM2 and it sounded really noisy when I hit FWD. It was silent in FF/RWD but really noisy when playing, then the play head started to judder when pressing play and not engaging. A lot of careful disassembly and I found the culprit. The Flywheel/capstan gear has a grove worn into it. Which basically means it doesn't engage spindle/capstan or read head properly. Try as I might I can't find a source for a replacement gear or even just a better capstan/flywheel. Does anyone on here have a source for this part? Looks like its no perhaps very prone to wear. Its definitely this part as if I leave off the circlip off the capstan and push the capstan into the unit maybe 1mm so its able to engage it runs perfectly and very quietly. Gear itself is approx 6.8mm diameter, about 4mm tall (above its counter sink into the flywheel), center bore is about 3.5mm and it has 22 teeth. Really need this gear or a good flywheel from a junked unit... plus the capstan washers (as I lost one of those during disassembly).
Just finished repairing and doing some maintenance to my newly purchased wm-2 which I got for 60 dollars NZ and a ten dollars for the belt, centre gear was in great condition. Cosmetically it’s about 7.5 out of 10, just scuffs from general use but plays beautifully. Everything 100% complete with no damage. As you can see it has play on the play button. And the serial number is 999143 Cheers Kiwinut
I got a replacement gear for the capstan. There's a chap in France who sells them on ebay. Just the gear, so you butcher out the old gear and then push fit the new one. And I think I know why mine wore out, my capstan has a slight kink, must be close to the flywheel because its barely noticeable when the gears are turning. Just the faintest of quivers. The capstan itself is perfect which is why I never noticed the issue. So this replacement gear might fail in the same way, but hopefully not for a long time. Plus I've got a decent looking second hand one coming from Japan at some point.
I finally go round to cataloging how I got from purchase to where I am now with my WMII. Well nearly, I've not included the latest Capstan work. Also spun off a proper dedicated channel where I'll share all the stuff I learn. Won't be much help for seasoned users on here but might be fun to watch me blindly navigate my way through restoring the less desirable personal stereos.
