I have a lovely red WM-22 in mint conditions and it is working mostly fine, but I can clearly hear a buzz coming from the motor (if I apply pressure on the capstan, it change frequency). Some years ago I planned a recapping, but indeed all caps were perfectly fine so I left it with all its original parts. But the motor buzz is still there. Does anyone know if and how it can be fixed ? thanks regards
Can you tell if it's a mechanical buzz, like a card on a bicycle spoke, or electrical, more like a hum?
It is an electrical noise, it is heard from the headphones only; not so loud to cover the music, but it can be clearly heard between songs. It seems a common problem of the WM-22 (I saw other reports on the internet) but I still do not know the cause. thanks
This weekend I recapped two of my 24's. Very similar to the 22 in every respect bar the Dolby. Took about 20 mins each and the buzz is now gone. But before the recap job, it was so bad.... All the old caps were replaced with Nichicon caps and the improvement is undeniable. Not only has the buzz been dealt with but it sounds better than I remembered it ever did in 1986.
When I first got the WM-22, I was planning a full recap, but after removing 6 caps and find they were all still perfectly in spec I gave up (the traces on the PCB are rather thin and do not like excessive heat. Do you have an idea which cap is actually fixing the motor buzz issue ? My WM-22 plays quite fine, the head is new, it is just the annoying motor buzz...
Today I finally decided to recap the WM-22; I already had all the needed caps (new Rubycon and Panasonic) so why not. But it actually did not change a bit, the walkman sounds exactly as it did before and the motor buzz is still there, audible between songs. In the process I ended up with a broken pad (the old solder joints were really hard to clean) and had to add a bodge wire between one cap leg and a (luckily) available test pad. That further confirms me that blindly recapping units is not always a good idea because old circuit boards are delicate and traces can wear due to all the heat needed to unsolder and resolder the caps. My WM-22 is the later version with printed carbon resistors (quite accurate I must say) so I guess it was meant to be cheap - albeit cheap at Sony standards. So the mystery is still there, where do the motor buzz come from ? how can it be removed ?
