I just got through completing a cracked gear repair on my WM-D3. I used Marian's guide and I'm pretty sure I followed each step, as written. However, after putting my Walkman back together I'm still facing the following issues: 1. Buttons don't stay in position when pressed. This is odd, because when I was assembling the Walkman, before putting in the motor and capstan I did verify that all of the buttons worked and stayed put when pressed, with the stop button working as it should. 2. There is a grinding noise when I push the play button. Rewind works normally, and FF just activates for a second before motion stops. 3. With the front indicator LEDs set to Batt., all LEDs light up during FF and REW, but only a single LED lights up during the Play operation. I did read on another thread that this could be because of a PB/REC switch at the back of the motherboard being set to REC only, but I made sure I set it to play before putting in the motherboard. When Play is pushed, there is no audio and the tape counter (I just replaced the belt, too) runs intermittently. Really hoping for some guidance here. It's quite frustrating after putting in so much work in vain. Here are a couple of photos of the reassembly for reference:
Thanks for getting back to me. I’ll tear it open again and check it out. I just wanted to confirm: is this black lever the same one that fits into the plastic slider?
Okay, a bit of improvement here. I had stupidly installed the smaller gear in the take-up assembly upside-down. Now, it seems to be playing and fast-forwarding okay, but as you can see, when in play the gears for the tape counter don’t run and rewind still doesn’t stay put when pressed.
Sorry, one more post. This is with a cassette in. The tape counter gears activate during play and everything works, except none of the buttons stick.
One last bit here. After doing nothing, now the FF and play mechanism appear to engage and lock normally, but Rew still pops out. And when I change cassettes, I might have to push Play a few times to get it to engage.
Okay, now this is really weird and frustrating. I disassembled the button mechanics inside again, in the process temporarily losing the small ferrite washer and snapping a wire on the MB. After finally reassembling the button assembly, everything seemed to be working as it's supposed to, as you can see below: But, when I put everything back together the buttons don't lock again. I'm really stumped now.
One last update for now. Everything seems to be working, except for the REW button not locking. And when I change cassettes or open the cassette door, I have to push hard before the buttons can engage. Could there be an issue with the physical buttons on the back cover? The audio quality is great though and wow & flutter appears to be at a minimum, though I don’t have the equipment to gauge that accurately.
Any ideas on the button issue? I’m using it as it is right now, but it would be great for it to be at 100%.
Thanks for getting back to me, Valentin. I do apologize for all the videos. They were mostly just for my reference so I could document the process. In my penultimate post (video #5), you can see that all the buttons were working normally with the cover off. I had disassembled all the buttons and put them back together, then it started working normally until I put the cover back on. As for the stop button, as seen in the first photo I didn't pull out the plunger, only the plastic stop button itself, so the spring is still there. And later on, I did clean the small reel gear with IPA. I guess I will take it apart again, in a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to get somewhere. I did use your tutorial and consulted a bunch of YouTube videos, as well. Thanks!
Well, here’s something at least kind of positive to report. I took it apart and put it back together again (again re-soldering the volume control wire to the motherboard) and all buttons are working as they should. The only caveat is, whenever I open and close the cassette door it takes a short while for the buttons to work normally. They may still not lock for a few seconds after closing the door. But after that, they consistently work fine. I’ve decided to live with this little quirk for the time being, since it doesn’t really affect the Walkman’s operation.
There is a auto-stop lever which is engaged when the cassette door is opened. If the lever is dirty, then the buttons wont stay in because the lever is in the "open door" position. This is very common problem on D3.
