Hey all! I am restoring a rare find Sony WM-703C and would need a bit of help. First of all reverse play was not working due to the pull string not being strong enough to move the ff/rev switch. I cleaned the switch and hopefully this should work now...but in the process I lost track of how a spring comes back on to the lever that takes connects the solenoid. Since then I do not have reliable solenoid operation. If I help the solenoid lever a bit with a toothpick it works. So I see that solenoid (11Ohm resistance, which I think is good) does indeed release, but the spring tension somewhere is too small that the lever would actually be ejected (it is supposed to be under small tension right?). I do suspect it is all due to this small spring. Since only those three walkman models share this design I kindly ask anyone with this model to make a pic. Service manual has no details on that... This is the lever: This is the spring and the end I am not sure where is placed:
Actually the spring was OK as I pictured it, I just had to bend the end the arrow is pointing to back...but I still have solenoid issues....when it should release the level, the level does not jump out...only if I help a little....
For the benefit of anyone searching, I came across this exact same problem on a WM-600 (same mechanism). The cause was dried-up grease on the spindle next to the white cam gear, circled below. Cleaned it up thoroughly and refitted dry (I don't think grease is necessary here), which solved the problem completely.
