Sony TC-WR610 - Pinch roller pin replacement, Reel Gear Pivot Frozen

[Johnny_Law]

Put new belts in my TC-WR610. Was psyched that tape B worked great forwards and backwards. However tape A only worked in one direction.

Hmm ... what's missing?



Oh wait, I found it banging around inside!


... But, the shaft (axle?) it rotates on has gone AWOL. Can anyone please point me towards a good place to source a replacement axle?

 

[Johnny_Law]

Thanks to some advice from Terry at Terry's Rubber Rollers, I found that a drill bit was the perfect size.




However, I have uncovered a new problem. When I hit play on tape A, the capstan / pinch roller now work great, but the gear that turns the take-up spool fails to engage. I attempted to take a video in action but my device died - stay tuned.

 

[Johnny_Law]

Ok here we go. Tape A (the first one I try) you can see the little yellow gear doesn't engage. Tape B (on my second try - woops) you can see the same gear engage properly.

Any ideas as to what's wrong would be appreciated. In the meantime I'll be disassembling and inspecting.

 

[Johnny_Law]

Turns out the pivot for the idler wheel between the capstan gear and the reel gear just needed to be lubed.

Took a silly little video to illustrate.

 

[Johnny_Law]

Can call this good to go ... sounds great! Been a while since I've had a functioning cassette player.