i`ve received a sony wm f18/f28 today.

jerky headphone, no problem - soldered and glued.

but after that, i have an irregular sizzling on the left channel, when playing music. it doesn`t matter, if cassette in or if playing or spooling without cassette in. once the device runs, i`ve got that sizzling. it sounds like the same sizzling when playing vinyl.

but only on left channel... so ... what is it ? ...

think, some part in it is overaged and dying - but have no idea... anyone out there who solved the same ?

well, i...

- soldered headphone jack
- cleaned pinch rollers
- cleaned head
- put a tdk HD-01 demag kassette in it.

after that, i pulled out as much dust and dirt, as i could find with some q-tips ...

it works well now, playing forward/backwards without wobble. it`s only that annoying sizzling on left side...

/mmh . got it only in tape mode ... in radio mode everythings fine ...

is there a rasher of bacon or a sausage stuck somewhere near the sizzling noise

no, but i found a dead fly ...

seriously, this unit seems to bee a little bit vodoo to me ... i`m hearing it now for 1 hour... and the sizzling is getting weaker .... its like an old steam machine, who has to run "warm" .... very unusual ... never seen and heard it before ... i will listen to music, until battery run out, then i`ll repeat it tomorrow with fresh batteries ...

ok .. today i brought it to my local electronic store... they have a sign "we repair" ... so i`ll give it a try .... tomorrow i`ll get a call if fixing is possible ...

Nice to hear there are still places where they try to fix this kind of vintage electronics! Fixing is always possible, but sometimes it's just cheaper to get a working one 

the problem is : there are really few units, which are fully working after 3 decades .. so .. i decided to bring them to a shop to repair... it doesn`t make sense to play a weekly ebay roulette to get a proper player ...

how much % of your players are fully working ?

think, once it`s repaired, it should "walk" a decade again... at least .. ...

well, the technician will take a look tomorrow, so i`ve to wait, if he wants/is able to repair is... hope, i`m lucky ... ..

sounds to me like a bad earth from the motor

I dont mind doing the eBay roulette  But I try to get them cheap and expect them to be broken. Most of the time it's just the belt. Especially if you buy from people who didn't try repair it themself, there is good change that it's fixable. I try to avoid collectors, because they know what they are selling..

Hope the f28 is fixable, it's a really nice Walkman! I like the square design of it  

i didn`t mind too .. until the day i realized, that most of them are wobbling and jerking around where i couldn`t find a reason why. only 10 % need just a small repair like a jerky headphone jack or new belt.

so .. today i phoned with the shop - they`ll make the repair, but i should count with two weeks, until the technician gets some parts... well, thats pretty slow, but i`m glad at all, that someone WANTS to repair an old walkman... most ppl. think, this is rubbish, not worth to repair ...

hope, its ok and alive in two weeks, i`ll report it here ...

I guess I'm just lucky. 90% of the Walkmans I buy need just a belt or are working straight away. Even the really cheap ones nobody wants. Today I fixed a 11 euros tps-l2 from eBay by replacing the belt and putting a drop of oil in the motor. It goes like new now...

However I definetly have a problem getting a good Grundig Beatboy 100. I bought three of them already and they all have a really annoying motor hum. I bought the service manual and want to rebuild one complete by replacing all electrical components. That should solve it I hope.. I got to have one perfect, cause its my holy grail Walkman... It was my first ever 

uuh ... thats bad ... i know the same with WM II ... have already two of them, both with jerky sound -.- ...