So I just recently got a Sony WM-EX631 Cassette Walkman from eBay. Its been pretty good the first month, had to replace the cassette door on the transparent case but other than that fine. Now, it seems there is an issue with the autostop/autoreverse function. The cassette was intermittently reversing to the opposite side at random, like in the middle of a song. Once I changed the mode to not reverse, now it just stops as soon as I hit play even mid tape. I’m wondering if the mechanism for detecting auto reversing needs attention. From what I’ve gathered they use some sort of transducers on a reflective gear to accomplish this. Is that information correct? If anyone knows anything I’d appreciate it.
I don’t know your specific machine and haven’t used cassettes for years, but from experience back in the day the first thing that occurs to me is uneven tension - what happens if you manually fast forward the tape to the end then rewind it? Does retensioning the tape help at all?
That was the first thing I did :\ unfortunately it does this to all tapes I put in it. I opened a fresh cassette I just got yesterday to test it and the issue persists. As a slight update, I contacted the seller. I feel bad as they are sending me a new unit. I do not think this was their fault in any way. But I appreciate it nonetheless. Another user suggested heat treating the springs, that will be my next go-to. Thank you for your help though, I really do appreciate it.