Hi guys, This is my first time at attempting to fix a portable cassette player. Don't have too much experience with them but I'm patient enough to learn from those who wish to help and appreciate all the assistance I can get. On to the issue: Recently purchased a used Sony Walkman wm-ex1 with the intentions to repair it. Was told it could be a belt issue as the device itself was turning on, but no movement on the spindles. Upon arrival, first thing I did was clean the rubber rollers, capstan and head with rubbing alcohol. I downloaded the service manual so I was able to open it and replace the belt without any issues. However, when playing a cassette I heard severe sound distortion, which I believe is what's known as wow/flutter. I'm not too sure what to do next since most sites suggest cleaning the parts mentioned, which I already attempted but granted not thoroughly (haven't taken any pieces apart). Things I noticed: • I wasn't able to remove the PCB from the rest of the mechanism as it involved de-soldering some parts and I'm trying my best to work around that. When opening it I immediately noticed the lack of belt which I replaced with a new one purchased from Marian (mihokm). Playback, FF, REW got the wheels running again. • Before focusing on the capstan, head, rubber rollers, is it possible that this distortion is caused by a melted belt inside the gears UNDER the PCB? I honestly don't see any residue or traces of the old one, so I'm assuming the previous owner removed it. • When a cassette is played from the very beginning, the sounds is in tune, but slowly distorts a few seconds in. • Device is being powered by the AA adapter with a fresh battery. FF and REW seems to work perfectly. • I tried tweaking the trimpot which, based on the manual is a non-labeled screw near the battery compartment. This did nothing to the sound as the tape still had the same slowed down effect seconds into a song (starts off good, then changes speed). • Also read about demagnetizing the head, but I'm wondering if this is what's truly causing sound distortion. • Sometimes during playback, the small window on the player lid showed the passive spindle having a hard time moving. This is followed by the player stopping. I initially blamed it on the gears not moving the main spindle, but when I played the device WITHOUT a tape, the spindle was properly moving. • When I cleaned the rollers (Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol 91%), I noticed a lot of dirt on the cotton swab. Afterwards I noticed the rubber started to get really pale. I kept cleaning it until the swab came back clean but I'm wondering if this affected the rubber in any way. perhaps stiffened it? Would this cause wow/flutter? As mentioned before, any assistance will be gratefully appreciated! Thanks guys.
Your first attempt to repair a walkman seems a successful attempt, your walkman works unfortunately I do not know why you are getting sound distortion and hope to get some answers from one of our experts.
Try check the following: Pinch rollers are not dented or glazed No belt slippage from the motor. Check if there is any debris or remnants of old belt still on the flywheels. Turn the supply reels (spindles) by hand while the unit is in play mode. Compare resistance in both directions. There shouldn't be much, and you should not feel any sudden resistance. Take the back cover off. With the unit on in play mode with no tape, disconnect the battery and turn the capstan flywheel furthest from the motor. You should not feel any sudden resistance. Run the unit with the front door removed. gently touch the supply reel. Compare how much force it takes to slow the playback speed down in both directions. If you feel resistance or inconsistency turning the reels by hand, it is likely debris such as old belt pieces have embedded in the gears, or a cracked gear (unlikely) If touching the supply reel with low force slows the speed down significantly, it is likely the pinch roller has shrunk/glazed over, or is not providing enough spring force. Missing belt in a untouched unit is impossible. While it is possible it somehow disintegrated and is hiding under the pcb, it is likely the previous owner opened it before.
Hi bub, thank you for the suggestions. Will try them this afternoon as I'm currently away from the unit. However, I did try a few things this morning and so I'm outlining my new findings: The device is able to handle dual playback but I'm NOW able to understand the mechanics behind this feature. Earlier I had noticed only one roller touching the capstan while the other stayed still. At first I thought THAT was the issue, but after some tinkering I learned that only one side of the player is supposed to move to correspond to the tape side you're currently listening to. Meaning, pressing PLAY again (during playback) triggers the other side to move; roller, and reels together. Still learning =). Anyways, this is where I need some feedback. When I load a tape and hit PLAY,the right side starts spinning (rollers, capstan, reel) but when hitting PLAY again, the other side (left) plays for 5 second then STOPS. Could this be THE issue or are the rollers still responsible for the sound? I'm starting to think it might be both. Say I get new rollers, the playback feature is still jamming (when switching to the other side). I'm starting to think the old belt might be under that PCB and possibly causing problems on the gears. The person who sold it, doesn't know the history as he buys them in bulk from japan and sells them as is. The unit is used so I'm assuming the owner either took the belt (not sure how likely this is) or it broke and disintegrated and it's under the PCB. Perhaps he took the belt knowing the rollers needed replacing and didn't want to bother? The rollers do seem glazed or hardened. Haven't taken them apart but they look pale after cleaning them with alcohol. So it's a possibility they need replacing and they could be the ones causing the bad audio.
I will follow your thread because I am interested in your progress. I hope it works out and is fully operational once your repairs are completed. I got a WM-EX1 for a few dollars. It wasn't working when I bought it for $5 from a local mini flea market. I thought it only needed new gum-stick batteries, which I purchased along with the battery charger. Still doesn't work, although I can hear it cycle on. I will try to carefully open it up to see if it's something obvious. Nando.
Hey Guys, wanted to give you an update regarding some small progress of the wm-ex1. Since I figured the issue of the audio was due to the pinch rollers, I decided to look for new ones. I checked with Marian and he said he might be creating a few with the dimensions I needed. In the meantime I bought a roller rejuvenation by CaigLaboratories to see if it could help restore it a bit. It actually seemed to bring their color back and removed that glazed look they had. However, after testing a tape the sound; although somewhat improved, still sounded slow and distorted seconds in. Playing the opposite side (hitting PLAY again) would still not work as the player comes to a stop and then switches back to the previous side. Although I do feel the rollers play a role on the audio being this bad, I think it's more than that. The fact that it won't play the opposite side as it should leads me to think its an issue with the gears. Which means I'll need to desolder the PCB completely. Not sure if I need to inspect the motor since REW and FF, and even PLAY seems to work. Any feedback or suggestion as to what it may be? The belt is brand new and it doesn't feel loose, so I'm discarding it as the culprit. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!
you just gotta keep at it....Take plenty of photos step by step so you can refer back.....i have a piece of a4 paper with blue tack....i number it 1 - 20 and when i take a screw out or a part off i put it in the blue tack in the sequence i took it off (numbered)
Yep I would desolder and check the mechanism at this point. Use a good wick to desolder, it isn't hard. You can move the reels and solenoid by hand to check operation. It is possible to run it with the board off in most logic walkmans, but you may need a square wave generator and extension wires, or short a test land (see the service manual).
Hi guys, thanks for the suggestions. Before desoldering the PCB I wanted to try a different cassette I had laying around. It was some 90s metal promotional tape with 2 songs on it. I was curious as to how it was going to sound so I popped it in. Surprisingly enough it played without any flaws! After testing other tapes I came to this conclusion: The wm-ex1 definitely needs some new pinch rollers. One of them has some sort of mark and you could clearly see it left on the original tape I tested on. As for the slowed, distorted sound, I might need some input on this. When playing songs recorded live, and with slower riffs (think garage rock) the player acts up. But when playing something upbeat/fast (metal, electronic), the players has no issues. While I don't understand this too well, I'm comparing it to records and how their grooves differ based on the music recorded on it, which may impact the stylus. Perhaps this is an issue with the tape head in addition to the rollers? After playing the metal (music) cassette one last time, the tape got chewed up and almost damaged it completely. I'm keeping others away from it until i fix the other issues. Anyways, the new rollers won't be coming in for quite a while. I did get a hold of a local seller who has another one of these players he's willing to sell. Only thing missing is the belt and is from his own collection. This helps since I won't have to guess what happened to it like I'm doing for this particular one. I'll let you guys know how everything goes. I'm in South Florida and preparing for Hurricane Irma right now, so I won't get to work on this for a while. Thank you guys for all the help. If there's any questions or if anyone is troubleshooting a similar issue, feel free to ask me anything.
I've just speed read this thread and have a few questions and points. 1: rubbing alcohol has a relatively high water content and should not be used for cleaning heads. Pure Isopropyl only. 2: using alcohol on pinch rollers never a good idea. Dries them out and hardens them. 3: describe "distortion", because it's unclear if your describing the speed of playback or audio that sounds like it's breaking up or overloaded. 4: Sounds like you have old belt residue in the flywheels groove as well. This is often overlooked by people changing belts and even the slightest crumb of old belt left in that groove will affect performance. I use IPA soaked cotton thread vigorously and then a very careful clean with miniature denture brushes. If I'm able to remove the flywheel easily, I also soak them in IPA just to be sure. 5: you could also have belt debris in the machine. 6: capstan could need relubing 7: motor could be dirty inside and in need of a good clean. It could also just be weakening with age (as per the 701-c motors that render an otherwise lovely machine useless). 8: you could also be using shitty tapes, always consider this in the equation when evaluating a cassette player. If you get the pcb off, do check for any signs of leaking capacitors.
Hi guys, Doublecee, thank you for the suggestions. For some reason the forum stopped alerting me of any replies which is why I took this long to post back. That and hurricane Irma pretty much slowed down this whole project for me. Anyways, quick update on the ex1: Using the rubber rejuvinator helped tremendously as they started looking much healthier once I applied it. However I did hit a wall with the sounds distortion based on the tempo as explained in my previous post. While deciding what to do with it I got in contact with a local seller who shipped his ex1 from his private collection. This new one needed a new belt which I replaced and cleaned the rollers with the rejunivator. Anyways, I'm finally able to play some tapes on it but came across a new issue which I'd love to get some feedback on. One of the pinch rollers has a dent, which I've read online is caused by player's battery dying while in playback, leaving the rubber in contact with the capstan. Based off of this observation, playing one side of the tape (the one using the dented roller) produces some minor wow/flutter. Nothing like the old one but because of this issue I'm depending on the other roller for playback (manually switching tape sides, rather than hitting auto reverse). I was willing to leave it as is but I was thinking on swapping it with the old ex1's pinch roller which has no markings. I don't believe i need to separate the roller from the arm assembly (just bring in the whole thing) but don't have any experience removing this part. The service manual only shows the exploded view which is somewhat helping. Any of you guys have tips on removing that part on these particular models? Is the plastic pin holding the roller arm/assembly very fragile? Thanks again everyone.
The pinch roller arm is very easy to swap in this model if I recall. In the past, I swapped rollers between my 2 EX1s and 2 FX1s to get the best performance. You will need to remove all the casing, especially the trim above the rollers/heads. From there it should be quite obvious on its removal- I believe it's snap fit, you unlatch it, rotate it up and remove. Take care as the latching mechanism might be fragile.
Hi bub, In addition to the casing and trim, does the PCB need to be removed for any reason? I was inspecting the piece and don't know if I need to push it out from the opposite side which is where the PCB is. Or if it's just pulling it out (watching out for the latches of course). Thank You!
Great News! I was able to successfully swap the dented pinch roller without breaking a single piece . Sound is SO much better which just goes to show how big of a role these little things play in audio quality. I'm keeping the old ex1 disassembled in case I need to salvage any other part. Thanks to everyone who chipped in with advice, I truly appreciate all the input and help, you guys are great!. I've picked up a lot of new things while working on it and if anyone has any issues with theirs let me know. I can always provide pictures as I was able to documents most of the steps. One last thing, while almost giving up a few days ago, I found a WM-600 online that I couldn't pass up. It was in great shape cosmetically but seller hadn't tested it due to lack of batteries (no gumstick or AA adapter), However I was told it was working last time it was used. I ordered a belt, batteries, charger and new rollers since one of them had a dent (just like the ex1). Right now I'm having a problem opening the back part to change the belt and the service manual fails to show a disassembly page (missing?). Need some help with it but I'll make a new post here since I don't want to mix up two different topics. Thanks again everyone!
