[DMcMahon]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

I know of the motor rubber grommets but do not where/how to get replacements, I have repaired very similar using cable rubber grommets (but not ideal). There will be others on the Forum who will be able to advise better on this.

The external speaker output is meant to connect just to an external speaker, sounds like you have connected it into an external amplifier line input, if the recorder loudspeaker output signal is good then am surprised that the playback through external amp was not distorted.

When an external speaker is connected into the external speaker jack then it opens a switched contact on the jack socket that disconnects the internal loudspeaker (to mute it). If this contact is poor/high resistance (when closed|) then this could possibly explain the low volume.

I would first check the contact, if you have a test meter then measure for low resistance across the contact (recorder switched off and disconnected from the mains supply).

David