I have a late model Sony WM-D6C (approx 1996 manufacture year) which is working perfectly, no wow and flutter. It makes a faint thumping sound when the motor spins (play / fast forward or rewind) at a frequency of about 5 times a second. The frequency of this sound is at the same speed whether in play / fast forward or rewind.

I thought it may be the rubber ring on the flywheel which may have a flat spot that's causing this, any ideas?

Thanks,

Greg

Hi gregorybotha and welcome.

This is normal of this walkman if the play has been left inadvertently engaged say, if the batteries ran flat, the motor pulley would remain on one spot of the flywheel tyre, causing the rubber to deform, due to the pressure of the motor applied against the flywheel by the spring.

This is not as much of a problem in the WM-D6C, you don't have to worry, for the motor should be properly disengaged from the flywheel at stop - some of those smaller DD and derivatives kept the motor engaged... and over time you know the rest.

As the servo pickup is in the flywheel, no wow should be detectable. Just give your walkman a gentle run in PAUSE for a little while and it should be slightly smoother.

Thanks, I thought as much. The good thing is the pinch roller is perfectly round.

Is it possible to find a replacement flywheel or maybe I should look for another WM-D6C for spares?

I managed to find a seller on Ebay that does replacement belts (not original) but apparently as good as the originals. The walkman is working perfectly and is in really great shape, I just thought it may be a good idea to stock up on spares.

Greg

Anyone interested in what this sounds like can download the mp3 here :-http://public.me.com/gregorybotha/Sony WM-D6C Capstan Flat Spot.

Greg

Hi Greg,
I have such a rubber band of the flywheel.
Not new,but still good.
Do you need? Contact me.

Hi,

Can you send me a picture of it?

Email to gregorybotha@me.com.

Thanks,

Greg

I would like to thank Renzgi for sending me a spare rubber band for the flywheel to fix this problem, before he helped me I was thinking I might need to buy a donor WM-D6C to fix this problem.

He's really helped me out with this.

Cheers,

Greg

I gladly helped

I got the rubber ring for the flywheel today and fitted it tonight. It was quite an easy thing to do and now my Walkman is purring like a kitten :-).

Glad its fixed. Sorry, didn't know it was THAT bad haha. Now you can try lathing or wet sandpapering the spare rubber back to shape.