So you've got a bit fed up of hearing wobbly piano sounds or dodgy guitar reproductions from you AIWA? Want to get that worn piece of liquorice allsort of a pinch roller out? Well here's how.

I've been asked to do a walkthrough of the removal and re-installation of the pinch rollers for the 0ZM tape transport.

For this quickie guide, I will use my trusty parts mule, the AIWA HS-PX610 that I swapped the head assembly with a JX707 for my HX head mod earlier as it is quick to take apart and photo.

Remove the door. If you are doing this with the JX707/3000 be sure to pay attention to avoid twisting or any other undue stress to the flat cable. It will split and crease then tear, to leave you with a Japanese paperweight.

With the door off you can see the pinch roller pins clearly.

Use an appropriately sized precision cross head screw driver and push the shaft through. Carefully extract the shaft from the opposite end.

The pinch roller can now be removed from the rest of the head assembly for inspection, cleaning or replacement.

Installation is a reversal of the process.

NOTE

If the integrated tape guides are damaged or missing from the pinch roller housing (two lumps of plastic either side of where the tape runs) then chances are you will still have dodgy playback from your AIWA even after cleaning or replacing the pinch rollers. Your only recourse is to get donor parts from a junked walkman.

This works for nearly all other walkmans as well, although in some cases it may be easier to just swap out the whole pinch roller assembly.

I sort of regret not picking up some broken OZM based units while I had the chance, because I really need that pinch roller guide assembly for my 707.