Sony Walkman wmfx20

I recently purchased this unit and you can find the purchase report in this blog post: Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20

The initial report of the purchase stated the issue was solely with the tape playback and that every else works fine. Cosmetically it looks fine apart from a bit of cleaning that is needed in the battery compartment, touch wood there isn’t any battery corrosion.

I’ve kind of jumped the gun a bit here in ordering a set of new drive belts for the unit, the fact it is 33 years old now probably means it would be money well spent. ( I may order a stock of belts for any future projects that I partake in) The belts alone were £6.95GBP so that now takes the total for this project to around £26.00GBP in total, but I’m going to use this personally so I’m not too concerned. In good condition and in full working order I could still make a small profit on this so at this stage I’m not too concerned.

The unit arrived on the 29th April. It is in a very good cosmetic state and all the lettering on the buttons is intact, a few small scratches and battle scars as expected but overall very good.

Radio and all button functions work fine, when you push any of the cassette buttons you can hear the motor run so no issues there. Let’s get this package dismantled.

Once inside the most obvious issue is that the belts have turned to mush.

I remove what’s left of the old belts, give a good clean to the cams and reinstall new belts that I have purchased earlier. A little bit of grease to the moving parts and cogs and all moving smoothly. As I’m doing this I notice a problem that I was not expecting, there seems to be a damaged cog, see the video below:

Damaged cog

Well, that’s a bummer as I’m going to have to obtain a donor for a new cog on the fast forwarding capstan, I’m hoping they are all pretty much standard so I will keep an eye out for a cheap option to repair. Whilst checking the system out it becomes apparent that this cog is specific to the fast forward operation so as long as I don’t use this then it should all be ok…shouldn’t it?

In theory yes, however every now and then when in play mode there is a slight dip in quality so I’m not going to chance damage to a tape.

Conclusion: it’s fixed, sort of. I’m looking for a donor cog that will fully fix the issue, the radio is fine, tapes can be played it’s just that I don’t really want to damage any until this issue is sorted. It’s a shame as it really was just those rotten belts that needed replacing. I’m pleased with what has been accomplished, yet again another 30+ year old electronic item has been saved from landfill. That’s a result.

I’ve just purchased this item from EBay. Here’s the listing:

This is being sold as spares as sounds like the belt has gone so don’t play tape has some battery leaking marks but radio plays fine.

Please study the pictures as this makes up some of the description thanks for looking and please check out our other great bargains 👍
Ebay

Just a sucker for a bit of retro me. I’ve worked on the discman, blog post here: Sony Discman D-121 Pt:2 as well as on a few others spread over this site.

This one dates between 1991-93 as these were the years that these particular units were manufactured between. I knocked the price down a bit but ended up paying about £18GBP in total.

It looks to be in good cosmetic condition with light usage as you can still see all the numbers on the rubber pads quite clearly. For a unit that’s potentially into its 33rd year that’s no mean feat. Anyway we will just have to await its arrival and not get too excited.

I preferred the tape Walkmans to be honest and I’m hoping this one will be a simple fix so I can play all those old REM tapes I have sitting in the cabinet at home. But it probably won’t be a simple fix. And it has corrosion , how quaint!

The assessment and repair post can be found here: Sony Digital Radio Cassette Walkman WM FX-20 assessment and repair