Hi There,
You can ask Dave Graham (sdg3205) or Elvis. Those are the 2 that I know of. Well worth it based on my experience.
I am of the same opinion to keep it original. To each his own. :smile:
Printable View
Well, I removed the display and it has the classic split in the flex cable around the rod area. If I press on it I can make connect and the display works just fine, so it's just the flex cable. I'm actually glad that it broke while I have the stereo out.
On to having it fixed....
Attachment 43583
thin copper wires work fine.
best I found were very thin insulated wires from an Apple notebook display
not thin enough - not flexible enough -> display not fully closing
Attachment 43626 Attachment 43627
Is this the part of the flex cable that gets damaged (red arrows)? What's the simplest method to getting the display to work? I don't plan on ever using cassettes, so the tape door will stay shut after the fix. I'm hoping I don't have to solder in new wires, just wondering if there's a simpler way. Dana previously said that if you press on it then it works fine, so maybe there's a way to have it permanently pressed (?) making it simple without re-wiring. Thanks
Today I was planning on soldering new wires like in the above pictures. But I wanted to test the unit again, so I connected the power wires to a car battery and heard a small pop, smelled some burning and there was no power from the unit. I had tested the unit on a car battery a couple weeks ago, and then unit was working, even connected to a speaker and could hear the radio. I opened it up today and I think these 4 might be the problem, as that's where the smell seemed to be coming from:
Attachment 43766
My first thought was I might have a burned a fuse inside the radio. I'm reading about an "inline fuse", is this fuse inside the radio, or on the wiring that leads into the car?
Is it possible when you hooked it up to the car battery you had the polarity reversed? Looks like you popped the electrolytic caps, they are very sensitive to reverse polarity. There are 2 in-line fuses external to the radio, 1 for ignition power and 1 for constant power.
Thanks David. It turns out you are correct, I had hooked up the + and - backwards. I was using another car battery for this and went by the color of the caps instead of the cables. Could I have caused other damage as well? Anything else in there that's sensitive to reverse polarity?
That black stuff on the caps is glue.
As you can see in the schematic of the radio ( I expect you have it and can read it when you try to work on the radio)
one wire has a diode and the other does NOT.
All you can do for the moment is - test it correctly connected and hope...
BTW - this is why I use a power supply with current limiter for such tests.
But hey - sh.t happens and usually the radios can be repaired. The caps were old and dry anyways and
cost like 20 cents each.
I have spare parts/old stripped radios if spare parts are needed.
Hi there,
Just an update on the Craig. I was able to get a repaired flex cable and display from Dave Graham. Thanks Dave!
Old and new parts...
Attachment 44045
Installing the display..
Attachment 44046
Installed.
Attachment 44047
Radio installed and tested..
Attachment 44049
MP3 jack installed in the ashtray..
Attachment 44050
All buttoned up..
Attachment 44052
Thanks everyone for your help!
Cheers,