Hi there! As the title suggests, I’m looking for some help with my WM-EX122 that I bought not working and am trying to fix up. I already replaced the belt and added a tiny bit of oil to the motor, but it seems to stop early and some people have told me it’s probably the clutch gear and the little felt ring underneath it needs to be replaced or cleaned. The small white gear at the top of the first picture will move at an inconsistent speed, before sometimes slowing completely and causing the playback to stop no matter where it’s at on the tape. It’s also inconsistent with how long this takes, sometimes it’s immediate sometimes it’ll be a full minute or longer. I think it also sometimes fails to stop when fast forwarding and it reaches the end of the tape? Hopefully that’s caused by the same underlying problem. I’ve found the service manual for this model online, and it gets me as far as removing the mechanism deck from the main board, but after that it’s not much help beyond an explosion diagram that doesn’t cover the gears. I’m very hesitant to start yanking parts without knowing whether they’re meant to come off, so is anyone familiar with this deck mechanism and is able to help with next steps or point me towards another guide that already helps with this? I can provide more pictures if needed.
If I recall correctly, some of those gears are heat staked on so they can’t really be removed. You can pull off the spool gears (A) by spreading the tabs as there are little barbs holding them on. It is not easy though. You need to slight pry up while finding a tool to open both sides up. That should give you more access. I also remember one of the gears was not turning easily and needed to be cleaned/lubed. Play around with all of them to ensure they all move easily as this is clicking off likely due to too much resistance in the mechanism. Also note that when you hit play, this plastic lever rides up on the surface of the gear B. Clean this and add some light plastic compatible grease. Same on the white gear on the left. Although an inexpensive and basic mechanism, they can be quirky to get going again. gear.
My WM-FX113 (and some similar ones using that same mechanical deck model) (in my case) FF rew perfect but playback plays very sluggish or slow either from the very beginning or worse midway. Speed adjust or new belt did no good. Makes me wonder if the head surface wears down because if I slightly engage play button before it clicks in it's perfect. I even tried squeezing the head spring but no good so unless a shorter spring might fix it I don't know.
