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The Walkman is the Sony WM-EX521 from 2002, which is a pretty late model. It’s not one of the classics from the 80s, but I really like the design, the case is made out of metal so it looks and feels really solid and with it being relatively young, I don’t expect too many problems. In fact, I had a suspicion that the only thing that was wrong with it might be the belt. Tape drives have rubber belts in them which link the motor with the tape mechanism, and these wear out over time. They can become loose or lose their elasticity, some break and some also try to turn themselves back into crude oil, which leaves a giant mess behind.
So when the Walkman arrived, I opened the back to see how it looked on the inside, which required putting it on a heat plate for a few minutes to soften the adhesive, and then I could carefully insert a plastic tool between the frame and the back cover and start prying… nah, I’m kidding. This was made before all of that nonsense. You take out five screws and you’re in. Which is how it should be.
Anyway, I took the back off, stuck a battery in, pressed play and I could see that the motor was spinning, but the belt was loose and wasn’t moving. Suspicion confirmed, the belt was bad. Thankfully it was just worn out and hadn’t disintegrated yet, so that’s an easy fix.
I ordered a new belt here, which arrived a few days later from Portugal, and replaced the old one. I also sprayed some contact cleaner into the volume potentiometer while I was at it, because it sounded very noisy and scratchy. Here are some pictures, and you can see the old, worn out belt next to the new one. It’s literally twice as long! No wonder it wasn’t working anymore.
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This entire post is amazing. Every step Andreas takes, from selecting and buying an (old) Walkman, to repairing its belt, to using the (known) frequency of the first note of a song to “tune” it by recalibrating the speed control potentiometer while playing into a guitar tuner app… feels like you’re being taken along on the journey with him.
I really enjoy Andreas’ writing style and posts, so I’ll be adding him to the blogroll. A delightful and serendipitous find (courtesy of Bubbles).
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