forecast: 100%
chance of gay
do it yourself!
sony wm-f15 walkman cleaning
90% of the time, cassette players are not working due to the deterioration of the belts, which were made of a rubber or rubber-like material, that can break down and become gooey and gross over time. for the most part, simply cleaning out the old belt and replacing it with a new belt should suffice. sometimes, getting to the belt will require some desoldering and soldering. the best tip is to take lots of pictures as you go, which will help you remember where everything was! it just takes a bit of patience, but it is very rewarding to see a once non-functional piece of equipment spring to life!
cassette decks are great for fixing, bc they have large transport mechanisms and are easy to take apart. there is a lot of material and videos online, as well as a solid community, and generally they are designed to be serviced relatively easily!
there are belt kits available on amazon or ebay, but more specific belts can be ordered via ebay. fixyouraudio is a recommended seller!
these videos are a great breakdown of how tape players work, and how to repair them, if you really want to sit through it all, you will have a great understanding of cassette players and how to fix them!
the tapeheads forum is a great resource, and i also recommend this discord server, which has lots of very nice and helpful people who are very experienced in repairs!
service manuals can be found online. for cassette decks, most can be found on elektrotanya, manualslib, and hifiengine! save these poor machines from being scrapped!!
sony tc-rx55es tape deck transport belt replacement