This is a great machine, mainly because 300 CDs are in there, safely stored on a carousel and if you keep it organized, a brief ID of each CD appears on a readout when you turn the dial. Push the dial in and the carousel rotates and the machine plays the CD. Wonderful. You can also do stuff like random tracks, playlists, etc. Who figures all this stuff out? Nobel prize for them.
But what about when it stops working? Really, really sad to throw it in the garbage sack just because the repair would cost half as much as a new machine. And what if it stops working just because the little rubber belts age out and get stretchy, causing one of them to pop off the little pulleys and motor drives inside?
There are three belts in this. Two of them operate the movement of the carousel and are relatively easy to get at, if you have a lot of patience. The third operates the little door in front and the CD's have to be removed and the turntable lifted to get at it. All three are of the same age, so the logical thing to do is replace all three, but I am a lazy son-of-a-gun and ordered only the two. I don't open the door much and if it ever stops opening I'll pry it open with a butter knife or bite the bullet, get the third belt and have at it.
The case is easy to pull apart, just take out all the black screws holding it to the chassis. The back of the unit, where the circuit boards are, has to be released from the chassis so that you can get in there to diddle with the belts. Another 6 or 8 screws do this. You also have to pop off a few connections which allow you to move open the back far enough to do your work. A large ribbon that comes over the top releases quite easily. About three small connectors feed data from various places to the circuit boards and come off quite easily. Be careful with them. I didn't feel it necessary to label them, because it is quite obvious where they go. One can always take a picture with the cell phone, though.
The power cord comes in the back and goes to one fitting on a horizontal board and it is quite delicate. In my case, the fitting is locked on to the receptacle and the socket came off from the circuit board revealing two tiny pins that have to go back in the holes, but will not stay in. Loctite plastic epoxy did that trick. A drop on each side of the socket, push it down and hold it until it sets. I was worried about the connection beneath, but it worked. Another drop on each side, applied with the tip of a knife, to hold it down, let it cure a while and make the connection. If you very, very carefully release the plastic connector in the first place, you will not have this problem.
Voila! Problem fixed for about 8 bucks. Too bad I let it sit unused for over a year before I got around to making the repair. But what the heck. Time is on my side, right? There is a nice little video on YouTube to guide you through the process, too!
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