gregorybotha - 2009-12-06 03:51
Hey Guys,
Does anyone have a spare WM-D centre gear, I'm trying to repair my WM-D3 by need a donor gear to get this done. It can be broken, as they all do over time, but not tampered with.
Can anyone help?
Success at last, I managed to get a replacement gear for my WM-D3 from Renato, with a bit of negotiations.
After much blood / sweat and tears I managed to replace the gear (3 1/2 hour later). This really is quite a tricky job as I had to desolder the heads and battery connections from the main board and completely dismantle the Walkman. It was a nightmare keeping track of all the screws and plastic cir-clips. I was determined to put the walkman back together as it would have been done when new.
A suggestion to anyone who needs to dismantle anything to this extent, take lots of pictures as you go.
Check out the pictures:-
Completely dismantled......
Eyes watering......
All mechanicals back together!
Thanks so much again to Renato.
By the way, this has to be one of the best condition Walkmans I've bought to date. It has hardly been used (no head wear). It's nice to have it working properly again.
Congratulation Greg!
Now you have a fanastisch collection of noblest SONY stuff.
Cheers,
Renato
That is a very nice unit, like your work very clean looking.
Hello!
My name is Mariano -I'm from Romania.
I have a similar problem whit my walkman WM DDIII.
Today i finisH reassembly. Personal i use a bicomponenent reasin by UHU, and after 12 hours I use a paperglass for remove the excess material.
My damage has more than like you - app 3,5 mm -I can understand how is possible broken and dissapear the broken part????
Sorry for my poor english
In the repair process -use it the gluegun whit heating plastic?
My new mission in life is to find a replacement wheel/gear for these units. I too have a mint DC2 but I can hear the faint click of the wheel - it's only going to get worse. Sound is amazing, best that I have, with almost no wear to the head or pinch roller.
I'm going to start taking anything that I come across appart, see if perhaps one of the wheels of another walkman will work. we need to preserve thse gems, they must be saved.
I think that someone else on our forum recently mentioned that we should find a model maker/machine shop who can duplicate and fabricate one of these. (do people still use CAD/CAM and stereo lith?)I wish I had the resources to accomplish this project. If ANYONE knows of a resource, please let us know. I'm always keeping my eyes open for one....
good work,,,i hacked one up about a year ago. my first mistake was to try to use superglue to put a piece in. after that it really went downhill. all was not lost however. i now have a very nice retro-pod with a black covered wm-f5.if your so inclined or persuaded a panasonic SV-MP020 MP3 player works perfectly. they run on a single aa battery. i got a refurbished one at amazon.com for 20.00. it runs on a single aa battery which is unusual. i think if i tried i could get 4-5 jammed into the old sony sport. the panasonic come in 1 or 2 GB.
@ Greg:
I can feel your pain, I've been through exactly the same with my D3. It was fun though and I certainly learned a lot about this great machine.
Good job!
@Mariano:
The "missing" piece you describe is in fact not missing at all. What happens with these walkman models is that the black plastic center gear shrinks over time due to the evaporating plastic-softener. Once there's enough tension, the center gears will just break, leaving a gap.
I've seen anything from just a tiny gap to canyon-sized cracks.
There are not so sure of this - mostly you're right, but I think there cut is from the beginning, because otherwise he could not play metal insert in plastic center.
Material properties do not allow for expansion so great - no implied contract as high. Risk of plastic deformation.
Smart materials occurred after 1995 - those which may have elastic deformation
Conclusion - cut technique for inserting the metal
You're right, there could be a cut. I've never considered this. But then, how would they "weld"
the two open ends together once fitted on the disc?
Thinking about it now, would it be possible to injection-mold the black plastic center gear around the metal disc? That would make a cut unnessasary.
I think you're correct, Sajin. The metal disc probably is an insert because injection molding around that disc allows each part to be more consistent, durable and easy to manufacture. Perhaps the fracture line originates from the "witness" or parting line of each half of the tool.
