This was the 3rd model os Sony Walkman from 1981. In this video I am going to fully tear it down and see if I can get it to work as in it's current state it does absolutely nothing.
I had the same issue, so I have recreated the hook spring and the lever. I have posted both parts on shapeways as HP fusionjet nylon12 parts. Also I have posted the 3d files are on Etsy. 12v send me a message if you want a part. I have tested a desktop printed part using petg and it works excellent. The HP fusionjet parts should be even stronger. I think people underestimate 3D printing. It's advanced to the point we have stronger than OE parts in some cases. And we could make these in metal if you really wanted :)
If you listen to the right music, you don't need fast forward, and you can rewind by listening to the other side as long as you don't forget because that music is so good because you might never get to either end.
I used to work in a small radio shop in Piccadilly London a short distance from The Ritz Hotel and I sold one of the first 'walkman' TPS-L2 units labelled as Stowaway to Ringo! If he still has it it's worth a mint. Sony rebranded the Stowaway and the same unit TPS-L2 became a Walkman which was made in much larger quantities and just seen a used Walkman on eBay for £850. I wonder what an original Stowaway would fetch?
There are many RU-vid electronic repair channels But there is something about your I really like the way you always brain storm and able to fix cracked broken little parts and make it all work again I am always Impressed with your work and i learn a lot from your knowledge. Very Relaxing to Watch SO FOR THAT I AM NOW A SUBSCRIBER . Keep em coming Thank you !
found one of these at a goodwill, has the same lever issue and belt is stretched but still works (have a replacement on the way), thanks for the teardown video, helped me get mine apart (especially figuring out that volume control knob) Im not sure if im gonna replace the ff/rw lever/spring as i dont need to use that function much and i just wanted something that can play tapes with not much wow and flutter and didnt cost much. only other thing is i have to de-oxit the pot for the volume as its a bit scratchy. while this had a lot of plastic it still wasnt half bad and easy to take apart when you could figure it out lol
Brings back memories the walk man , my old friend had one to play recorded pianola roll data to his machine , his family dumped a far bit of his technical stuff clearing out his estate.
I have just snagged a Sony TCS-300. I have noticed the "Eject" lever is pretty much failing to work, it will work maybe once and then fail. I have yet to power the machine up but I am assuming I will need the lever and hook spring parts.
I have a Sony WM-F41 walkman and the radio works but the motor for the cassette does not when I press play FF or rewind. I took the motor out and tested it with a batter and it worked so I know the motor is not dead. I put it back in the machine and it still wouldn’t budge. Any ideas on what might be causing this? Thanks!
I remember selling this model in the late 1970's early 80's, here in Australia, at the time the small shop I worked for specialised in small portable audio and hifi
Did you guys ever repair any WM-F65's or WM-F15's? I have a bit of a soft spot for those models, they share many parts with other models like them WM-F10 etc
I too often get deep into a restoration to find broken pieces. Remember too that 3D printing is just layers of resin, which may not be as strong as the plastic that was used in your part. So you could go through all the trouble to 3D print a part, only to find it break. I still enjoyed the video. It's always cool to see you take things apart. Thanks!
I have one but it eats up tapes after a few moments of playing and the eject button doesn't work. Are these easy to fix for me or someone else more qualified???
Had Sony TCS-310 inherited from my aunt with the very same mechanics, and very same problem - broken plastic linkage. Although in no longer ffwd or rew at least it plays fine - for now.
I recently get a wm1 however after making my own battery cover for it and getting it to turn on the tape would randomly stop spinning while the device is on or it would play slow and also the rewind button doesnt work each time i press it the walkman thinks im pressing the fast foward button which does work
Broken plastic parts unfortunately. Remember these things were only designed to last 1-2 years. Everyone thinks these were designed to last decades but they never were. USA models had a 90 day warranty. On Canada they had a 1 year warranty and if they made it past the warranty people would trash them.
The one I have is different inside. It's a WM F1, cassette with fm only The belt is easy to change compared to that one there. A couple of the contacts were corroded too, and I used clr to clean them and it worked like a charm. A cousin of mine had one of those waterproof types with the yellow rubber coated case. Who knows what he did with it. He also has a Bang Olufsen stereo brand new in the box, but doesn't have a clue about anything. I should help him part with it.
I have the pro version of this with stereo microphones. Plays and records type 1 and 2 tapes but no fast forward or rewind for the same reason. I did replace the belt. Very good sounding machine Its the TCS 310
I have a Sony WM-F63/73 AM/FM sports walkman and I had to replace the belt on it. It has capacitor issues because if I tap onto the audio out points before the amplifier the audio is fine but if I plug in headphones the audio is low, cutting out or distorted. This set has the surface mount capacitors. I have regular capacitors I could maybe use because there is a good amount of room and I've seen people repair sound boards for the Sega Game Gear console with them.
My D3 is like new condition and has been restored and has scratches since it still has the carry case. There are alot out there in like new condition too. I have also a like new Sony D6C. but looking forward to getting a like new AIWA PX101 which has been properly restored by Sergui in Romania.
Thanks. It seems very close to my 1984 Walkman Professional, WM-D6C, a device that remains in working order. Regarding the broken part, perhaps someone out there has a WM1 and access to a 3D-printer and will take up the challenge on your behalf; who knows.
Apart from the ff/rew function that walkman plays back smashing :-D I would have mentally gone through all the possibilitys to fix that lever. A small spring reformed and jb welded to the plastic looks possible, but it depends if it matters enough. It works and that's great :-D
Hello. I have the same unit with a different issue. Maybe you can help. The unit will not power up via batteries unless I put a small piece of aluminum foil on the top of the batteries / underneath the battery compartment lid. Once the foil is there, the unit powers up and plays. However, the battery quickly overheat and expand - a bit dangerous. Any ideas on how to fix this issue? Thanks so much! Love your videos! Extremely helpful!!
This might come as a surprise to you but if you put foil under the battery cover you are possibly short-circuiting half of the batteries. Clean the contacts of the battery compartment correctly. if that is ok and your batteries still overheat then you have a short-circuit elsewhere, probably a bad condenser.
Use a pc of plastic of similar composition as that part, and with the heat of a soldering gun, fabricate that little bridge as far as u could. Looking at a breakdown picture on a service manual will help.
Guessing the WM1 was the base model for the revised lineup? With the WM2 and 3 the upgrade models? Also couldn't help noticing a little brass O-ring visible from 21:41 never got put back... Didn't downvote you as it isn't a real repair unless you find parts still on the table...
There is one eBay for $85.00 surprisingly in the US @ Morton Grove, Illinois and I don't expect you to purchase the device. I just surprised to see it on eBay and I can't believe the cost...
totsu heads. sony's broadcast gear in the 80s was full of them, & we had special drivers in many sizes, with the spring-loaded tongue that went into that notch to save you dropping the bolt into the dark recesses of a £65k vtr!
walkmans with this transport have this weak lever... the same mech is used in the tcs300 & others, nice compact stereo recorders... I have a wa-55 "soundabout" stereo radio-cassette here too, same fault. I got into correspondence with a dentist in india, well-known walkthing collector, about casting replacements in dental amalgum, but it went quiet. maybe someone could clone the part nowadays using a 3D printer.
I've found my own wm-1 teardown pics from 2007, exact same part but slightly less of it missing. it is just one piece of cast plastic that serves to push the idler in both of the directions required. in my pics, there are two other machines with the same fault- TCS-300 & WA-55.
@@duncan-rmi forget wa-55 and tcs-300, get tcs-310 and wm-1; they're better replayers with 16khz! plus you have a recorder and a replayer with male to male plugs for connections!
Making it out of metal would have added major cost. From a manufacture perspective even shaving a fraction of a cent per unit is worth it. They do not care if the unit breaks. As long as it lasts longer than the warranty. You may not agree with this but this is how business works. Increasing production cost either drives up the price it reduces profit. Look at the high end beta decks for broadcast. They went for 30,000 for a camera. It was heavy, all metal construction (broadcast) and could run all day every day and be beat on and it never skipped a beat. Pay the money and get great reliable items. But making a walkman of that quality would cost 1000.
@@12voltvids It wouldn't cost that much, but it would last to long and no more sales. However, unless something lasts well, I never buy the same twice. I look and if it is something that is stupid like a plastic clip I will try some other make. Sony way not my favourite brand anyway. The one I liked best got bought over I think by Panasonic?
@@BoB4jjjjs It does when you. Air millions. The cost to stamp a steel piece is certainly higher than making out of plastic. Metal also deforms if dropped. Plastic has a certain amount of give before it breaks and the lifespan of a walkman is not something that was designed to be around on 20 or 30 years. The average life of a walkman. Perhaps 1 year before it is replaced. So why put extra cost into something that likely won't even see a first birthday. The vast majority were replaced with a newer better model very quickly.
@@12voltvids Yeah, I know, but I expect it to last a few years before it breaks, anyway, if it was dropped hard enough to deform the metal part there wouldn't be much of the rest of it left.
@@BoB4jjjjs A few years yes, but this is 40 years old. WM10 was metal, and was the easiest walkman to break. Falling 2 feed off a bed onto a carpeted floor was enough to break that model.
Plastic is always the bane of vintage electronics. BTW, I never saw a walkman that takes 4 batteries instead of 2. 33:46 I wonder if there's a dentist somewhere missing one of his tools? LOL.
So just because you don't have a 3D printer and a cad file, you're not printing a 3D part? Ridiculous! But more seriously.. I did have 1 3D part printed to fix a 1979 RCA 'piano keys' VCR because that one was worth it. Perhaps in a near future it will be easy to scan an object and produce a usable CAD file without large amounts of manual effort, that would be cool.
@@12voltvids That is exactly the part I printed but you probably guessed that. Well built deck but for that 1 part (later revisions have a brass gear). It's huge but I love the fact that it's all mechanic. Still plays great too!
3d print parts are not from steel. For tiny thing like that, they are very fragile. At least using the consumer grade systems an materials. The most hours I have used a portable cassette player was 2 Toshibas and one sony. I bought one of the toshibas NEW, used daily until the bel just broke. Sony its Sony, sound is superb, but I have seen this plastic things fail before, small posts or hock that snap and then the walkman is a brick. The toshiba didnt sound that great, but hats off on the mecha, because even a decent desktop deck wouldnt not put that amount of hours without developing an issue. NOTE: Mecha was "all" metal (mostly) It was a bit battery hungry ...
I still have my first Walkman from when I was a buyer for a Hi Fi store in central London. When I went to the launch in a Park Lane hotel, it was presented as The Stowaway. Most of the buyers were not impressed so I managed to buy a substantial amount from the first shipment of 500 units. Then I had loads of dealers begging me to sell them some of my stock at trade price. In the end I sold so many I got invited on an all expenses paid trip to the far east to see one of the Sony Factories. The first walkman's would damage very easily if people dropped them on the hard stone pavements. I would suggest Panasonic batteries which never leaked.
yeah, i had one of these, still do actually, but the thing about it is, the rubber bits cant be replaced or renewed to my knowledge, this player is one of those that will never fully work without special repairs done, just really not worth the effort IMO
@@12voltvids i think i spent a good maybe 75 hours or so working on it trying to get it to work, never could get it to pull the tape strong enough and just gave up on it
@@12voltvids also if you want to know one of the cooler advanced models you should check out the wm-7, it has logic controls and such, also with the headphones a remote control, thought you might like that, and first auto reverse walkman
If you go to hifiengine.com and look for that model I bet the schematics could have a good image of that piece *edit here’s the link to the schematic www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/wm-4.shtml
You should call this video repairing an antique Walkman using a caterpillar truck. Or better still, Antique Walkman repair using a wrecking chain. The device is old , the plastic is weak and brittle, and people do collect those things. 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼
Why would i call it that? I didn't abuse this one but considering the plastic is falling apart i should have brought out the hammer and put it out of its miwery.
