Sony TC-WR535 – Cassette Deck – Belt Replacement

I recently replaced the belts in this Sony dual cassette deck and celebrated last night by listening to Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger.

This Sony deck has much smaller Fast Forward and Rewind belts than other Sony models have. The first time I took it apart, I didn’t have the correct belt size for those functions and had to wait until they arrived, at which point I had to disassemble all over again. I don’t mind the process too much as it gives me practice taking these decks apart. Outside of cleaning the old belt residue, this model was rather easy to install new belts.

I’m always surprised at how much disassembly is required to reach the belts. The below photos show how the entire front panel must be removed from the unit and then each tape mechanism removed further to better access the belts.

Once you can reach the mechanism, it only requires two screws to be removed to reach the belts. The circuit board with the motors simply comes apart allowing you to easily access each belt. See below photo without the new belts installed…

When you install the new belts, note there are “catches” that can be used to hold the belt in place while you reattach the motor assembly. See below photo. This allows easy reattachment of the assembly at which point you easily slide the belts off the catches on to the proper spindles.

As I mentioned above, this deck uses much smaller belts for the Rewind and FF functions. If you look in the photo above, it’s the belt on the bottom right hand corner. See below for sizing…

I was truly stumped on how to use the catches for these smaller belts as the diagram in the service manual was a bit vague. Thankfully I found the below video on YouTube to help me understand…

Once the belts were replaced, the unit needed very little cleaning inside. I ran a Q-tip through each side but barely any dirt or grime was detected.

I will keep my eyes out for more of these models as the repair was much easier than other Sony models I’ve encountered!