Sony walkman WM-EX194 tape player

[DIYspanner]

Does anyone know if these are serviceable regarding the drive mechanism?

My mother has several which she uses for audio books so they get used quite a lot every day.


With this amount of use, the sound gets sluggish which I assume is due to stretched drive belts inside. Sadly they aren't available to buy anymore and as she likes this model for its simplicity, I thought I'd look in to repairing them.

 

[ChrisFrost]

I wonder even if bits are available just how practical it is to try to replace the belts. It'll be quite fiddly I'd have thought.

First thought, a good used machine as an alternative. This Sony is excellent and would have cost a bomb when new.

Obviously there's more up-to-date technologies now such as MP3 players. But I take it that it has to be cassette because the audio books come from a library or some sort of support service and she changes them like library books? Does the library also have audio books available on CD at all? I have used CD versions myself for listening in-car where there's no tape player. A portable CD player might be an alternative if that's the case.

 

[DIYspanner]

I appreciate your comment about portable CD players and the fact that a tape player would a fiddly to repair.

If I can access the drive belt, I could probably obtain a o ring to do the job.

 

[flameport]

With this amount of use, the sound gets sluggish which I assume is due to stretched drive belts inside

Possibly, the other likely cause is dried up old grease on the drive mechanism combined with years of dirt. Easily solved by cleaning the old grease away and replacing with new.

 

[DIYspanner]

Thanks for that flameport.

Does that mean dismantling the drive mechanism?

Any particular grease/oil?

I had the back of one of the walkmans - rather complex to look at.