If you take it apart and clean and lube the sled rail the pickup rides on, that Sony CD player may start working. Many times those rails will dry up and cause the pickup to get stuck. I fixed several of these just by doing that back in the day. These actually work pretty well. Great video! Cheers 🍻 -Al
So that CD changer uses it's own wired FM modulator. It goes in between the factory antenna and the radio itself. There'll be a little metal box behind the dash somewhere with the factory antenna plugged in, and a cable that's plugged into the back of the radio. The display unit you were playing with is normally stuck somewhere on the dash, and it's controlled with an IR remote to skip discs and tracks, etc. These Sony units were the OEM changer for the stereo supplier that fitted the factory radios to Holdens of the day here in Australia, and I used to have one. These were actually rather reliable back in the day, and I can almost guarantee that a good clean will bring yours back to life. They didn't have a digital anti-shock memory or anything fancy like that, but they did have a really well designed damped suspension system, and they rarely skipped. As an added bonus, they held 10 discs to the usual 6, and the slot loading design of the magazine was far better than Pioneer's, which had flimsy trays that swung out for loading.
That's the basic radio I had in my 1989 Crown Victoria that was loaded with every option except instaclear glass and trailer towing package and that thing sounded amazing,,, it lasted 14 years before it started acting weird. I tried to find and have put in a good aftermarket unit and went with a Sony which had a great tape transport but didn't sound as good.... Crown Vic went until 2017 with 260000 miles on it,, still ran well, transmission was going, still had the original freon in the air conditioning... Great car..
I had an old Kenwood radio with compatible Kenwood cd changer in a 60's Chevy pickup truck. You could tell from the quality of the cables that they meant business! Excellent system, never gave trouble. Now I'm riding in a 2011 Hyundai Sonata limited with their Harmon Kardon system and it is an absolute delight with a Sirius subscription. Being stuck in L.A. traffic is must less irritating with Gunsmoke and Paladin keeping the bad guys at bay.
Shango, I used to work on a lot of these back in the late 90s when I started out as an auto radio repair technician. A lot of those Ford radios are comprised of mostly Fujitsu Ten components. The biggest issues were the dial would go "out", when in reality the incandescent "wedge" bulb would simply burn out behind the dial, the button and toggle controls would go intermittent due to a very cheap conductive contact arrangement behind the faceplate. In fact, the service replacement for this, was the entire faceplate is simply changed out. The other thing to look out for (although this exact model may be right before the trouble era) were these and the Lincoln radios used these lime green colored electrolytics on the main board that would puke where the rubber seal mated with the aluminum can. This would then promptly start eating away at the traces and by the time the customer noticed functional issues or a completely dead radio, it was too late as the main board suffered from too much corrosion damage from the multiple caps. Ironically, I believe they were Nichicon brand which are normally very good capacitors. I don't recall much issue with the cassette units other then bad belts or customers doing stupid things.
Those lime green colored lytics were early low impedance variants that didn’t age well at all. All of the conventionally good brands had similar problems during that period, I suppose the chemistry just wasn’t there yet. But they all have a habit of eating the board and causing lots of damage. I have a list on the computer of the series I’ve found leaking so I know what to blanket replace for reliability
Usually belt s wemt bad. Worn pinch rollers. Pioneer use just send whole mechanisms if was completely shot. I was bench technician fixed pioneer. Jvc. Clarion. Kenwood etc. Car junk. Nice once got know models really. Oh some that panasonic cd changers. Plastic gears hundreds them gears. Man alive what crap that was I rather fix old tvs. Really Times changed alright. Cant make living at it throw away now.
I drove an 89 Thunderbird SC that had that radio in it, along with the JBL amp and speaker factory option. It was a real nice setup. It had AM Stereo reception too, and it worked.
The JBL's were real decent tuners and their amps weren't bad for being factory. I think the Lincoln JBL setup's were slightly better sounding, probably due to better sound deadening etc. The JBL's really were way better sounding than the regular factory head units
Sunnyland Slim was indeed one of the best blues pianists ever. Nice one Shango. You opened a real time machine of a sound system with a Sony CD machine.
When I first started driving in the late 80s, there really were no automotive CD players. Everything was cassette. All of the lower end automotive cassette players could only fast forward. So if you wanted to rewind, you had to take out the tape, put in the other way and fast forward for what seemed long enough, then eject and put it back in. I was so happy when I finally got a pioneer with autoreverse and a rewind button. It was 300 bucks back when 300 bucks was a lot of money.
i remeber the cd changer but my dad put one in a mazda 626 we had back inte 90 ies. but the changer was a pioneer and it was the best tha money clould buy in sweden in the 90ies. keep up the good work 👍👍👍👍👍👍
There has to be dust on the laser; it’s been sitting for 25 years! I’m surprised it worked. The tape deck didn’t work, period. IMO, CD sounds much better than the compressed stuff today!
I get the excitement to find a nice 90's car. Recently got myself a clean 30,000mile '89 Buick lesabre. It also had radio problems with one dead channel. I recapped the amp board so it's in good shape now.
Back in the day, I had a Kenwood cd changer and that thing rocked on for years. LOL Never had good luck with anything CD related made by Sony. Thanks for taking us along Shango066!!!
When my mom ordered her expedition from the factory she worked at, they installed all the bells and whistles and the cd exchanger was inside the center console and they gave her extra caddy's for it. The stereo was double DIN at the time with the same Flourescent display but had push button bass,treble, fade, etc and had a button for CD. The stereo also had cassette. She owned that truck for years until she traded it for a lincoln.
Those things just tied into the stereo via the antenna. You'd tune into the modulated signal on FM. All your CD controls were on the tethered display unit you were working with. My cousin had a similar setup in his 1990s F150. The radio/cassette was completely agnostic of the CD deck.
Back in the day when these were common, if you drove past someone with one of these setup's and the station you were tuned in to was the same frequency they were using, you get to hear the other persons CD, while nearby!
Some of those had a large Ford/JBL power amplifier in the trunk (which can be used in other cars if you are very careful about the weird power supply wire color coding: red negative and yellow positive for the high current supply if I recall). They also had JBL 6 x 9s on the rear deck with *HUGE* magnets and deep baskets and raised angled tweeter/midrange assemblies with special grilles to accommodate them. Those JBL 6 x 9s with that power amplifier would blow your ears out, and the bass was very impressive. A friend had a *high* mileage (former cab or limo) 1991 Town Car he got for cheap with such a stereo, before he junked the car, I rescued the Ford JBL amplifier and the speakers.
i had a 95 Ranger and was at the wrecking yard getting interior parts out of a 2001 Explorer and saw the am/fm/ cd cassette player and snagged it it fit right in and sounded fantastic. it was plug-and-play.
I have a Sony D35 Discman that I bought in my early 20s in 1992. It still works great today. A higher end Discman. It skips like a stone if you try to carry it around and use it. No buffering what so ever. I still enjoy using from time to time. I took really good care of it as it was so expensive at the time. I do believe it was manufactured in Japan. I wish i could find the original gum stick battery for it. Glad it has a battery holder for AA batteries :-)
I've had great success with CD's in my cars over the years and still use them. I think you should give more love to CD's. They're uncompressed and have no DRM. No one can edit or memory hole tracks they think you shouldn't hear. Take care of them and they do last forever. I'm still using CD's I bought in the '80's.
I agree, CD's are great, I still have 200 of them, many I bought late 80's etc and not one disc is damaged, (though I do take care of them) also, it's a physical entity that you own, and collected etc, also they still have the album's cover artwork...
I'm in love! Sealed up since 6k, it no doubt has an eclectic note inside of VOC off gassing and distillates I want to freebase into my meat suit. On that A4LD, the main killer is shifting from 'OD' to 'D' with a locked converter. A quick tip out of the throttle really bangs up the converter bad too. I would tap the brake while the throttle was applied to unlock before a downshift. You can WOT downshift, but I'm not a WOT kind of guy. If you do the WOT too fast, the shift may happen on the locked converter anyway and can be.... Violent. Those Cologne engines Rev quickly. Simply unlocking the converter with a light brake tap while under throttle usually enabled me to skip my planned downshift because of the gained RPM. Tighten the transmission bands real quick, super easy. It really made a positive difference in all the A4LD's I've encountered. (they need a periodic retorque as the unit gains miles) The A4LD is a really great transmission that really delivers a great feel and gear ratio selection while being almost entirely without computer assistance. Blamed for everyone's ability to drive 150k on the original fluid, with most the damage done the last 10k when half the fluid started leaking out. A temp gauge or aftermarket cooler on the transmission is appreciated. It's funny what ends the life of a vehicle sometimes, silly pan gaskets makes a slushy unromantic 700R4 king of a life full of stressless poise and dignity of having to wrangle a blob of Jello around.
"Ford 2004" is a piece that came with the Ford Granada in Germany. I know this for the fact I own one and it works fine as a "good sample" with most cars I put it in 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Looks like the same manufacturer who made the stock stereo in my 2000 Chevy S-10, the best car stereo I’ve ever had! It has an excellent tuner, a very powerful amp and perfectly laid out controls that you can operate without taking your eyes off the road. When the FM section died last year I bought a refurbished one from a guy on eBay who rebuilds them. Wouldn’t even consider a cheap crappy Chinese aftermarket stereo, love that factory stock unit!
It's not every day you hear about a good stock head unit lol! If i found one of these radios do you think itd be worth it to make a boombox out of it cause of the good tuner?
Not even close! Delco Electronics built your Chevy's radio as they did for decades for GM vehicles. This is a radio with mostly Fujitsu Ten components.
I'm with you on that! My '96 Sierra has the original AM/FM/cassette head unit with the supplemental CD below the heater control. Both still work fine. I figure the cassette works because I've regularly "exercised" it the Randy Travis tapes I had when I bought the truck new. CD has never given an issue either. Good stuff to last 27 years in a vehicle with nearly 325K on it. Even a good aftermarket unit in 1996 would never have lasted like the Delco/Delphi unit has.
What a score that car is. The Sony CD changer either needs the laser pickup rails to be cleaned and lubricated (dried up grease), or the gear on the sled motor shaft is broken. Some Sony laser pickups (KSS-213 and alike) do deteriorate from age, due to the plastic suspension of the lens, but this one starts fine, the suspension issue would cause focus problems and would not even start. The pickup is almost surely fine.
i always love these older car stereos. even that sony disc changer wasnt bad for the time. what i always found is the units get dusty inside pretty easily. cleaning the laser usually helps for a while. relocating that disc changer up front in the glovebox is handy feature. lol
Christ, that looks like about a 1000 watt high pressure sodium lamp on the passenger seat. Supertastic weed-weener right there. Looks like it's actually in a socket too.
A friend in engineering college interned with Ford in the late 80s. I remember him talking about spending 1 3mo work semester at the radio plant in Mexico. Was this Visteon by that point?
You can polish CDs - fine metal or plastic polish like Brasso or Novus. Major scratches won't go away, but removing the hard edges will allow most players to read them.
Perhaps spraying scratched cd's with a layer of clear coat laquer may fix the scratches? A thing that comes to mind not car related but i saw people pour water on vinyl and record rare albums with no cracling sounds.. kind of a fix like this too.. by the way :)
When i was in school for electronics across the street was the AC Delco car stereo repair center. Everyone applied for a job there hardly anyone got in. 😂
I've got one of the Sony Mega Storage 200 compact disc players that holds 200 discs. It's the only CD player I've had since new and it works perfectly. Doesn't miss a beat or skip or anything. Every other player I've owned CD or DVD screw up. Even an Aiwa system we bought my mom had a CD failure. I'm going to learn to fix these things I hope. I'll never get rid of the 200 disc Sony. I bought it when I worked are Sears on the weekends while in college. I thought the most amazing thing would be to interface with a computer and write a program where one would classify each disc with a Genre and then the album or artist with a score one through ten. Then rate each song. Then you could get the computer to either play a set list, artist, genre, or randomize based on the ratings. Then if you could load the song data into memory you could have disc changes without lengthy music delay. And you'd have to figure out what to do about level variations and possible fade in and out. That was my mindset in engineering school thirty years ago. Today we have streaming services that can intelligently customize your preferences with little more than a thumbs up or down. I'd have made a million and lost ten.... 😆
I'd like to hear more detail about the vehicle and where you picked it up and it's back story and so forth plus that blue plug possibly a din plug right next to the CD player look like it needed to be checked...
I don't use CD's anymore either. I still have a Sony 300 disk changer and believe it or not you can still buy the laser pickup module for it. Mine doesn't work anymore either. The part I need to repair it is only 15 bucks but I don't really care. It's a nice old machine though. I probably should fix it.
That's a " Premium Sound " unit!, Note the square plug, It works with a external Power Amp located probably under one of the seats, I had a 1994 Ranger that had that setup
Be careful of those rocker switches for the volume. I've had multiple Ford's in the past and these are the first things to wear out and then what people do is force them harder till they break off. That is the premium stereo subwoofer for the JBL model. Ford sold this stereo as a premium unit for the JBL system only. I had a 91 Explorer with the stereo and a 1990 Thunderbird Super Coupe with this stereo and the optional CD player add on as well. The small square speaker output went out from the stereo to the CD player then out to a factory JBL amplifier then to the speakers. It was quite the Ensemble back then.
Also if that's anything like the PlayStation two, it gets discrete errors from the laser getting weaker, but you can get significantly more life out of it by finding the tiny pot for controlling the laser diode power and turning it up a little
There was a 90s ford in our school with under 100 miles. Just dinged and scratched up from all the dumb kids in the shop but 0 rust. And the interior was stripped.
But still, nothing beats a good cd player for sound quality. I have the original lexus sound system with cd changer in my car witch is a lexus es300 from 1995. I believe that behind the lexus branding its a pioneer system but I'm not sure.
These were really good sounding head units. Sadly many have not survived when the capacitors leaked and no one wanted to fix them. Some already had direct inputs for the factory CD player (using the factory connector)...I am forgetting what was different on the ones for cars without a separate CD player, but it shouldn't be too difficult to make it active. When the separate CD player was being used, the screen would say CD, and TAPE when a cassette was being used.
Wow! This is an automotive time capsule. I remember reading an article in the mid 1980s that predicted a combined control and sound system with almost the same amount of functionality found in modern luxury cars. The only difference was that the system envisioned in 1985 used a CRT as the display device, and it was a text-only display without any kind of navigation functionality. The unfortunate casualty has been the use of standardized sizes for radios. There is no elegant way of placing an aftermarket radio in a modern car.
For stationary setups CD's tend to be pretty nice! I mostly use them for data stuff, but I do occasionally take out an audio cd. But, as you've experienced here, lasers die. It happened to my portable dvd player too. Not cars though! Oh ho NO! The car jossling around from hitting bumps on the road is GUARANTEED to scratch your disks up.
When I worked at the High Fi shop before setting up my own repair business I bought a Marantze CD52 player at trade cost value in 1994 It still works even today no issues, although I dont use it very often, 'Philips invented the compact disk' and later Marantze Japan took over the trade via a merger if you ever come across such a unit hang on to it you might get lucky. But it all depends if it has been used too much all lasers do go bad over time I agree! however some brands really do excel in quality and last.
As the vehicle only has 6k miles on it and spent a long time at the beach, I wonder whether the CD just needs a clean. Still have the CD autochanger in my 2004 Jag and that works fine (cleaned twice).
The same model radio, I think... in a 90's Ford Mercury Cougar, and my Mother was driving across country, (I wasn't there, but my grandmother was...), and a tape got stuck, They were listening to the Cassette single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by "Crash Test Dummies". I don't recall how they finally got it out or how many times the song played before they stopped it & that car was only a few years old at the time, though I'm sure the cassette player got a lot of use.
Ford used that same basic JBL radio for what seems like forever, I had an almost identical one in a 1984 Lincoln Town Car, albeit with ultra classy "Electronic Sound" script on the face plate. Actually still have two non working examples that died shortly after install and a random bag of parts from when I just rebuilt the original
+1 for the Kenwood CD Changer! Sony ones were garbage. I had a 10 disc kenwood and it lasted for years, even after i rolled the car it still worked and got re-installed in the next one :)
I had that exact radio in a Ford Taurus. I am almost positive the AM band has a stereo decoder. Even if the vehicle goes, put that thing in a standalone box and you have a decent am stereo radio.
Possible it is 106k, just highway miles, much less wear in those conditions. Plus you already know, they just made things better back then Shango. I'm happy with my 93 Dakota 4x4 v8, still going strong with 178k.
Trans would be grenaded before 100k miles. Look for signs of replacement to determine if it really has >100k. Could also pop a valve cover to know for sure.
Funny that you didn´t know this typical 90s setup: CD changer with FM IF output. I still have a JVC changer unit in my 88 Corvette. Works like a charm and you can keep the stock cassette AM FM radio while still listening to these new compacty disky things.
I haven't been in many of these, but I have fixed a few with LCD issues. The LCD contacts are mounted in foam, the foam loses a bit of elasticity and the contacts don't touch the board anymore. I would put a little thin cardboard to take up space and squish the LCD foam little tighter, and it would work fine. Also I bet that CD changer just has a dirty lens. Q-tip, alcohol, you know. Not that you care, or should, even.
Clean the laser. There should be a remote to control the remote sensor. I used to get 2-3000 hours on Sony ES players and they'd play any discs, even blue dye computer burned discs burned at 24X speed. New lasers are cheapish, and those earlier mid 90s units sounded great and were hearty. I upgraded to Clarion Pro Audio/McIntosh mobile audio in the mid to later 90s. I still have that all McIntosh system in place in my 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.9 AWD, with 3:73 axle ratio,46RE trans, on a 4 1/2" suspension lift; with a full wrap around push bar warn X9000 winch, KC DaLiters, rolling on 32x11.50x16" BFG AT's with RWL. Spins on factory Argent 16x8" 5 spoke wheels. Original STONE White paint, hood heat extractors with new Agate interior, and every possible option. In my 02 JGC Limited Trail Rated there is an all new custom built 4.7 HO motor, a 545RFE trans, 3:73 axles, Sure Grip rear diff, Vari-Loc Dana 35 front, fully loaded, factory indash Mopar CD player, feeding an Infinity 10 channel 476 watt amp, cassette player, CD controller for the CD changer located in the infant play area, OEM satellite radio, plus the factory GPS in dash touch screen Chrysler 1 1/2 DIN flat screen. Shes Dark Blue, rolling on Snowflake 17x8" wheels with 255 65 R17 Firestone Destination AT+3 tires and a level lift kit to do away with the soccer mom lean; front drive axle updated from a double CV front shaft to a Cardan Double joint at the NP247 Xfer case and a universal at the front axle. This eliminates the troublesome front double Rzeppa joint driveshaft that are the weak point, even for a 3" lift. Rzeppa joints dont like steep driveline angles. They are even weak on factory angles suspensions. Some fail at 10k miles some at 50k. Some fail over 100k miles but they ALL fail sooner or later. Many of those Sony mobile auto audio CD changers were quite good. Some OEM automakers used Sony stuff, along with Hamon Kardon, Blaupunkt, and Alpine, plus Fujitsu Ten, Motorola Delco, and Lear audio as well as Panasonic/Matsushita. It is totally true that the cheap 99 dollar Sony home or mobile multi optical player's were 100% crap. Whether RF coupled, or those that used the factory external switchable source input to the OEM head unit, the better more expensive units rocked, home and mobile as well. 2000 and later Sony left much tone desired, home or mobile. Like you, I enjoy decent factory audio systems, even the much better balanced (cleaner and higher powered) 2 ohm Infinity mobile factory systems. I hate all Bose (blows) factory and home audio offerings, even those in the later Corvettes and Nissan's, which were leagues worse than even the expensive substandard Monsoon (Delco) systems in the C5 and later Vettes. Even the Harmon JBL systems in better FoMoCo products largely sounded better than any Bose offerings. I love your channel Dan, and I look forward to your weekly updates. I've viewed most every video you've made since 2012. Please keep making them and dont quit anytime soon. I look forward to your weekly drops and wait from Thursdays on for something new to drop... whether its the electronics crash and burns, general automotive computer repair, or your most excellent Mine Explorations. I love them all, as well as your attitude and commentary. A man who speaks and thinks like me! Rock-On my friend! Perhaps we'll meet up someday soon, in the deserts of the Southwest or on the local LA electronics scene. I live in Hanover, Pa. Very close to Carlisle car fairgrounds and much of the best muscle car as well as vintage automobile and truck markets plus vehicle shows in the nation. Forget Mecum, or Barrett Jackson, they are obscenely overpriced, stodgy, fake, as well as boring to watch. Chryslers at Carlisle (Mopars At Carlisle) is my favorite event of the season and the one to see if you ever get out this way. We have lots of vintage TVs, stereo gear from the golden age of American electronics; all manner of electronics, test equipment, whatever your passion is, and the prices are still quite reasonable. You live in the land of plenty, I live in the land of OZ! Peace be unto you my brother, as well as to Missus Shango, and all the Shango kitty's at large! Keep safe and stay healthy my friend !
Should you decide to get this rig ans fix thr cd changer, the lasers are fairly easy to obtain. Generics for thr most part work fine in these. If its made post 1990 it likely has a kss-210a or 212a laser in it The real thing that killed these 10 disc changers was the rubber rollers shrinking that pulled the disc from the magazine. Disc would get stuck half way through loading. Your best bet for resurrection was to remove the rollers, and place a little glue on them, then heatshrink over them . That usually gave a couple more years of service. Pioneer changers were a much better design overall but there are no laser available anymore. Plus, the transport hung over the disc, which not only stressed the grommets holding up the transport - which would sag and cause the focal point to change and not read a disc, or cause the disc to bind in worse case scenarios. Also not uncommon to see the glue fail holding the lens on, causing it to fall off inside the machine. The kenwood and jvc changers (both used the jvc mech) are good designs, but poor use of plastics. Gears for the elevator and tray extraction crack and fail which will cause the machine to jam.
I have a soft spot for those ford radios with the green VFD. That looks like a nice explorer from what I saw. I'd buy it. The steering wheel leather doesn't look high mileage, same with the driver's floor mat, and the other things you showed. An interesting note on ford's of this vintage, if you look at the spark plug wires the factory wires have the year printed on them. This probably still has them.
Had slightly older similar versions of that radio w and w/o cassette player in some mid-late 80s Fords. There is a small board at the back where the speaker harness plugs in. Got intermittent problems with 1 speaker cutting out. Its been a while, but I think that board interfaced with the main board with a ribbon cable. It was either the pins in the board for the harness plug or the ribbon cable ends got cracked solder joints from vibration over the years. I resoldered them all and problem was fixed. If intermittent speaker issues, check that after the speakers themselves.
I bet that cd player would work fine with a lube job on the laser slide. Whatever Sony put on has been baking in California weather for the last decades.
Great video! I remember you making a repair series on a '93 Explorer some 8+ years ago, which also had an issue with the tape player. Is this the same car?
How does it switch between the radio/tape and the CD changer? Does it plug inline with the factory harness and redirect the speaker connections to the changer whenever a CD is playing or is it something else?
That cd player would have been so expensive I knew I'd never have one. The cd players that didn't have 30 seconds of error corrections memory weren't great in cars. I had a non-sony 'disc man' type thing with 45 seconds of error correction and it was actually ok in a car.
Those sony stereos are way better than the crap any car maker ever installed. Your crazy to think otherwise. I worked for Sony in the 90s. Their products were some of the best. Although I agree that cd players just don't last. The lasers are hung on plastic springs and they fall over time. Might work better on its side where the laser doesn't sag.
I had a 91 Lincoln town car and the factory stereo in that vehicle received a.m. stereo broadcasts. I wonder if that radio you have there has an a.m. stereo decoder in it?
The screen for the Sony CD changer has an 'IR' printed on it, suggesting that there's a wireless remote lost in the vehicle somewhere for it. That it plays the start of the disc, then falls off makes me wonder if the sled/slides in the laser scanner assembly need cleaned and relubricated - the laser can read the table of contents and start into the first track at the center of the disk, but cannot move out, and it's running out of the limits of the tracking magnets in the laser scanner assy. Perhaps just repeated use would get it moving again, but then you've made your opinion known about CD's, so....
I had a Sony 10 disc cd changer in my 90 eclipse and it was a love hate relationship. It would skip so often it drove me nuts. I wonder if cleaning the laser lens would make yours work. All those voc's from the interior might be coating the lens.
Those Sony CD players are not garbage. But then again you couldn’t figure out how to work it or had never seen an RF modulated CD changer LOL. I installed hundreds back in the day. It needs servicing but you probably won’t: former Sony Warranty Repair tech.
My dad had a 1997 F150 he bought in 2000 or 2001 from a friend of his to replace his 1991 Ranger XLT. The display got really dim and the radio died in 2008 or 2009. I think it might of had moisture in it too.
Some had a wired controller. looked down between the seats or under the seats and some had a wireless remote. I know you didn't like Philco TVs and I have to say they're not very good but the radio department always made some good stuff. Be it from the 1930s through the Ford car radio era.
I would say the CD spindle motor is not quite running up to full speed at the start of the discs due to having been sat unused for a long period . Try a quick shot of contact cleaner in that motor. Repairing these for Sony was my day job back when that thing was new
I use them, because I live in a state where there's an annual safety inspection and if that parking brake is frozen/jammed it'll fail. Good way for that to happen is to never use it.
The radio might even have C-Quam AM Stereo.
it do
People don’t think it be like it is, but it do.
Very well quite possible
If you take it apart and clean and lube the sled rail the pickup rides on, that Sony CD player may
start working. Many times those rails will dry up and cause the pickup to get stuck. I fixed several
of these just by doing that back in the day. These actually work pretty well. Great video!
Cheers 🍻 -Al
So that CD changer uses it's own wired FM modulator. It goes in between the factory antenna and the radio itself. There'll be a little metal box behind the dash somewhere with the factory antenna plugged in, and a cable that's plugged into the back of the radio.
The display unit you were playing with is normally stuck somewhere on the dash, and it's controlled with an IR remote to skip discs and tracks, etc.
These Sony units were the OEM changer for the stereo supplier that fitted the factory radios to Holdens of the day here in Australia, and I used to have one.
These were actually rather reliable back in the day, and I can almost guarantee that a good clean will bring yours back to life. They didn't have a digital anti-shock memory or anything fancy like that, but they did have a really well designed damped suspension system, and they rarely skipped. As an added bonus, they held 10 discs to the usual 6, and the slot loading design of the magazine was far better than Pioneer's, which had flimsy trays that swung out for loading.
That's the basic radio I had in my 1989 Crown Victoria that was loaded with every option except instaclear glass and trailer towing package and that thing sounded amazing,,, it lasted 14 years before it started acting weird.
I tried to find and have put in a good aftermarket unit and went with a Sony which had a great tape transport but didn't sound as good....
Crown Vic went until 2017 with 260000 miles on it,, still ran well, transmission was going, still had the original freon in the air conditioning...
Great car..
I had an old Kenwood radio with compatible Kenwood cd changer in a 60's Chevy pickup truck. You could tell from the quality of the cables that they meant business! Excellent system, never gave trouble.
Now I'm riding in a 2011 Hyundai Sonata limited with their Harmon Kardon system and it is an absolute delight with a Sirius subscription. Being stuck in L.A. traffic is must less irritating with Gunsmoke and Paladin keeping the bad guys at bay.
Shango, I used to work on a lot of these back in the late 90s when I started out as an auto radio repair technician. A lot of those Ford radios are comprised of mostly Fujitsu Ten components. The biggest issues were the dial would go "out", when in reality the incandescent "wedge" bulb would simply burn out behind the dial, the button and toggle controls would go intermittent due to a very cheap conductive contact arrangement behind the faceplate. In fact, the service replacement for this, was the entire faceplate is simply changed out. The other thing to look out for (although this exact model may be right before the trouble era) were these and the Lincoln radios used these lime green colored electrolytics on the main board that would puke where the rubber seal mated with the aluminum can. This would then promptly start eating away at the traces and by the time the customer noticed functional issues or a completely dead radio, it was too late as the main board suffered from too much corrosion damage from the multiple caps. Ironically, I believe they were Nichicon brand which are normally very good capacitors. I don't recall much issue with the cassette units other then bad belts or customers doing stupid things.
Those lime green colored lytics were early low impedance variants that didn’t age well at all. All of the conventionally good brands had similar problems during that period, I suppose the chemistry just wasn’t there yet. But they all have a habit of eating the board and causing lots of damage. I have a list on the computer of the series I’ve found leaking so I know what to blanket replace for reliability
Usually belt s wemt bad. Worn pinch rollers. Pioneer use just send whole mechanisms if was completely shot.
I was bench technician fixed pioneer. Jvc. Clarion. Kenwood etc. Car junk. Nice once got know models really. Oh some that panasonic cd changers. Plastic gears hundreds them gears. Man alive what crap that was
I rather fix old tvs. Really
Times changed alright. Cant make living at it throw away now.
I just recently refurbished one of these radios from my 89 T-bird. Had to change all of the green nichicon caps to make it work again.
do you know how to fix one of these stuck in TAPE mode..?
I drove an 89 Thunderbird SC that had that radio in it, along with the JBL amp and speaker factory option. It was a real nice setup. It had AM Stereo reception too, and it worked.
The one in my 91 T Bird was a POS. Did'nt last long. I replaced it with an Alpine.
The JBL's were real decent tuners and their amps weren't bad for being factory. I think the Lincoln JBL setup's were slightly better sounding, probably due to better sound deadening etc. The JBL's really were way better sounding than the regular factory head units
Sunnyland Slim was indeed one of the best blues pianists ever. Nice one Shango. You opened a real time machine of a
sound system with a Sony CD machine.
My 1996 Ford Ranger came with a CD changer. It served me well for 10 years before I sold the truck. No complaints.
90’s always sounds like 10 years ago but it’s getting uncommon to find mint 90’s stuff
When I first started driving in the late 80s, there really were no automotive CD players. Everything was cassette. All of the lower end automotive cassette players could only fast forward. So if you wanted to rewind, you had to take out the tape, put in the other way and fast forward for what seemed long enough, then eject and put it back in. I was so happy when I finally got a pioneer with autoreverse and a rewind button. It was 300 bucks back when 300 bucks was a lot of money.
I had one of those CD players and it worked pretty well. I think I remember a remote for it. You can pick a transmit frequency.
Top quality radios these were and i love the green display
i remeber the cd changer but my dad put one in a mazda 626 we had back inte 90 ies.
but the changer was a pioneer and it was the best tha money clould buy in sweden in the 90ies.
keep up the good work 👍👍👍👍👍👍
I want to say that was a factory add on CD system. I remember installing them at the Ford dealer 😎
There has to be dust on the laser; it’s been sitting for 25 years! I’m surprised it worked. The tape deck didn’t work, period. IMO, CD sounds much better than the compressed stuff today!
I get the excitement to find a nice 90's car. Recently got myself a clean 30,000mile '89 Buick lesabre. It also had radio problems with one dead channel. I recapped the amp board so it's in good shape now.
I had several of these in a couple escorts, a mercury topaz and a ranger. Yours was the high end model!
90s OEM radios are so cool. The CD changer fight is almost as good as your video with the TV+radio+cassette combo
It has been sitting in a bit damp vehicle for at least 27 years.
Garbage?
Original price $400-900, nobody would want to steal it.
Back in the day, I had a Kenwood cd changer and that thing rocked on for years. LOL Never had good luck with anything CD related made by Sony. Thanks for taking us along Shango066!!!
Kenwood was amazing back in the day, lots of folks here in the UK thought it was junk because there's a kitchen appliance brand of the same name!
This week I had to recap the OEM radio in my 1992 Taurus. One day it failed with a pronounced fish odor. Works perfectly again.
When my mom ordered her expedition from the factory she worked at, they installed all the bells and whistles and the cd exchanger was inside the center console and they gave her extra caddy's for it. The stereo was double DIN at the time with the same Flourescent display but had push button bass,treble, fade, etc and had a button for CD. The stereo also had cassette. She owned that truck for years until she traded it for a lincoln.
Those things just tied into the stereo via the antenna. You'd tune into the modulated signal on FM. All your CD controls were on the tethered display unit you were working with. My cousin had a similar setup in his 1990s F150. The radio/cassette was completely agnostic of the CD deck.
Yeah, it's an aftermarket add on, radio only does the tuning. It has an in line modulator in the cars antenna wire.
Yes, it’s just like the RF out on a digital converter box, VCR, etc.
Back in the day when these were common, if you drove past someone with one of these setup's and the station you were tuned in to was the same frequency they were using, you get to hear the other persons CD, while nearby!
@@krankyfish781 I still tune to lower frequencies and hear the Bluetooth versions in traffic sometimes!
I had one of them in my '91 town car, best sounding factory stereo I've ever heard in a car.. Always wondered who made it for them..
Some of those had a large Ford/JBL power amplifier in the trunk (which can be used in other cars if you are very careful about the weird power supply wire color coding: red negative and yellow positive for the high current supply if I recall). They also had JBL 6 x 9s on the rear deck with *HUGE* magnets and deep baskets and raised angled tweeter/midrange assemblies with special grilles to accommodate them. Those JBL 6 x 9s with that power amplifier would blow your ears out, and the bass was very impressive. A friend had a *high* mileage (former cab or limo) 1991 Town Car he got for cheap with such a stereo, before he junked the car, I rescued the Ford JBL amplifier and the speakers.
i had a 95 Ranger and was at the wrecking yard getting interior parts out of a 2001 Explorer and saw the am/fm/ cd cassette player and snagged it it fit right in and sounded fantastic. it was plug-and-play.
I have a Sony D35 Discman that I bought in my early 20s in 1992. It still works great today. A higher end Discman. It skips like a stone if you try to carry it around and use it. No buffering what so ever. I still enjoy using from time to time. I took really good care of it as it was so expensive at the time. I do believe it was manufactured in Japan. I wish i could find the original gum stick battery for it. Glad it has a battery holder for AA batteries :-)
These old receivers have such great selectivity and sensitivity. New receivers built on TEF6686 are also not bad, but it's still not it :)
I've had great success with CD's in my cars over the years and still use them.
I think you should give more love to CD's. They're uncompressed and have no DRM. No one can edit or memory hole tracks they think you shouldn't hear. Take care of them and they do last forever. I'm still using CD's I bought in the '80's.
I agree, CD's are great, I still have 200 of them, many I bought late 80's etc and not one disc is damaged, (though I do take care of them) also, it's a physical entity that you own, and collected etc, also they still have the album's cover artwork...
Need to see the rest of this vehicle! 6k miles, WOW.
106k.
I'm in love! Sealed up since 6k, it no doubt has an eclectic note inside of VOC off gassing and distillates I want to freebase into my meat suit.
On that A4LD, the main killer is shifting from 'OD' to 'D' with a locked converter. A quick tip out of the throttle really bangs up the converter bad too. I would tap the brake while the throttle was applied to unlock before a downshift. You can WOT downshift, but I'm not a WOT kind of guy. If you do the WOT too fast, the shift may happen on the locked converter anyway and can be.... Violent. Those Cologne engines Rev quickly.
Simply unlocking the converter with a light brake tap while under throttle usually enabled me to skip my planned downshift because of the gained RPM.
Tighten the transmission bands real quick, super easy. It really made a positive difference in all the A4LD's I've encountered. (they need a periodic retorque as the unit gains miles)
The A4LD is a really great transmission that really delivers a great feel and gear ratio selection while being almost entirely without computer assistance.
Blamed for everyone's ability to drive 150k on the original fluid, with most the damage done the last 10k when half the fluid started leaking out.
A temp gauge or aftermarket cooler on the transmission is appreciated.
It's funny what ends the life of a vehicle sometimes, silly pan gaskets makes a slushy unromantic 700R4 king of a life full of stressless poise and dignity of having to wrangle a blob of Jello around.
"Ford 2004" is a piece that came with the Ford Granada in Germany. I know this for the fact I own one and it works fine as a "good sample" with most cars I put it in 🙂 Thanks for sharing
It would be great to see some exterior / underhood video of this time capsule Explorer!
I believe this series of Ford radio has AM Stereo reception.
Looks like the same manufacturer who made the stock stereo in my 2000 Chevy S-10, the best car stereo I’ve ever had! It has an excellent tuner, a very powerful amp and perfectly laid out controls that you can operate without taking your eyes off the road. When the FM section died last year I bought a refurbished one from a guy on eBay who rebuilds them. Wouldn’t even consider a cheap crappy Chinese aftermarket stereo, love that factory stock unit!
It's not every day you hear about a good stock head unit lol! If i found one of these radios do you think itd be worth it to make a boombox out of it cause of the good tuner?
Not even close! Delco Electronics built your Chevy's radio as they did for decades for GM vehicles. This is a radio with mostly Fujitsu Ten components.
I'm with you on that! My '96 Sierra has the original AM/FM/cassette head unit with the supplemental CD below the heater control. Both still work fine. I figure the cassette works because I've regularly "exercised" it the Randy Travis tapes I had when I bought the truck new. CD has never given an issue either. Good stuff to last 27 years in a vehicle with nearly 325K on it. Even a good aftermarket unit in 1996 would never have lasted like the Delco/Delphi unit has.
What a score that car is. The Sony CD changer either needs the laser pickup rails to be cleaned and lubricated (dried up grease), or the gear on the sled motor shaft is broken. Some Sony laser pickups (KSS-213 and alike) do deteriorate from age, due to the plastic suspension of the lens, but this one starts fine, the suspension issue would cause focus problems and would not even start. The pickup is almost surely fine.
i always love these older car stereos. even that sony disc changer wasnt bad for the time. what i always found is the units get dusty inside pretty easily. cleaning the laser usually helps for a while. relocating that disc changer up front in the glovebox is handy feature. lol
Christ, that looks like about a 1000 watt high pressure sodium lamp on the passenger seat. Supertastic weed-weener right there. Looks like it's actually in a socket too.
Made by what was left of the Philco Corp when Ford bought them and then sold the brand to GTE Sylvania. Ford kept the auto radio division.
And these units had amazing sound coupled with the JBL sub and amp.
A friend in engineering college interned with Ford in the late 80s. I remember him talking about spending 1 3mo work semester at the radio plant in Mexico. Was this Visteon by that point?
You can polish CDs - fine metal or plastic polish like Brasso or Novus. Major scratches won't go away, but removing the hard edges will allow most players to read them.
Perhaps spraying scratched cd's with a layer of clear coat laquer may fix the scratches?
A thing that comes to mind not car related but i saw people pour water on vinyl and record rare albums with no cracling sounds.. kind of a fix like this too.. by the way :)
When i was in school for electronics across the street was the AC Delco car stereo repair center. Everyone applied for a job there hardly anyone got in. 😂
That CD player isn't broken, it's in a special mode to help prevent copyright strikes.
He got one anyways! 😂
I've got one of the Sony Mega Storage 200 compact disc players that holds 200 discs. It's the only CD player I've had since new and it works perfectly. Doesn't miss a beat or skip or anything. Every other player I've owned CD or DVD screw up. Even an Aiwa system we bought my mom had a CD failure. I'm going to learn to fix these things I hope. I'll never get rid of the 200 disc Sony.
I bought it when I worked are Sears on the weekends while in college. I thought the most amazing thing would be to interface with a computer and write a program where one would classify each disc with a Genre and then the album or artist with a score one through ten. Then rate each song. Then you could get the computer to either play a set list, artist, genre, or randomize based on the ratings. Then if you could load the song data into memory you could have disc changes without lengthy music delay. And you'd have to figure out what to do about level variations and possible fade in and out. That was my mindset in engineering school thirty years ago.
Today we have streaming services that can intelligently customize your preferences with little more than a thumbs up or down.
I'd have made a million and lost ten.... 😆
Congrats on such a nice find! Hope the J.J. Cruiser isn't too jealous.
I'd like to hear more detail about the vehicle and where you picked it up and it's back story and so forth plus that blue plug possibly a din plug right next to the CD player look like it needed to be checked...
I don't use CD's anymore either. I still have a Sony 300 disk changer and believe it or not you can still buy the laser pickup module for it. Mine doesn't work anymore either. The part I need to repair it is only 15 bucks but I don't really care. It's a nice old machine though. I probably should fix it.
That's a " Premium Sound " unit!, Note the square plug, It works with a external Power Amp located probably under one of the seats, I had a 1994 Ranger that had that setup
If it had the option it would be in the trunk area 6 or 10 cd changer.Great find.Mike the Greek
I had a similar CD changer in my first car. It hissed on high notes. I don't miss the player or the Ford Taurus that stayed broke down.
Be careful of those rocker switches for the volume. I've had multiple Ford's in the past and these are the first things to wear out and then what people do is force them harder till they break off. That is the premium stereo subwoofer for the JBL model. Ford sold this stereo as a premium unit for the JBL system only. I had a 91 Explorer with the stereo and a 1990 Thunderbird Super Coupe with this stereo and the optional CD player add on as well. The small square speaker output went out from the stereo to the CD player then out to a factory JBL amplifier then to the speakers. It was quite the Ensemble back then.
Also if that's anything like the PlayStation two, it gets discrete errors from the laser getting weaker, but you can get significantly more life out of it by finding the tiny pot for controlling the laser diode power and turning it up a little
There was a 90s ford in our school with under 100 miles. Just dinged and scratched up from all the dumb kids in the shop but 0 rust. And the interior was stripped.
The front panel has an "IR" logo so there's probably a remote control to switch the tracks. Somewhere in the car or somewhere in a landfill...
I haven’t played a cassette in a while. I don’t miss them.
But still, nothing beats a good cd player for sound quality. I have the original lexus sound system with cd changer in my car witch is a lexus es300 from 1995. I believe that behind the lexus branding its a pioneer system but I'm not sure.
These were really good sounding head units. Sadly many have not survived when the capacitors leaked and no one wanted to fix them. Some already had direct inputs for the factory CD player (using the factory connector)...I am forgetting what was different on the ones for cars without a separate CD player, but it shouldn't be too difficult to make it active. When the separate CD player was being used, the screen would say CD, and TAPE when a cassette was being used.
What a diamond in the rough, please get that running and back on the road, those 1st gen explorers are the best! Would take one over a jeep any day.
Wow! This is an automotive time capsule.
I remember reading an article in the mid 1980s that predicted a combined control and sound system with almost the same amount of functionality found in modern luxury cars. The only difference was that the system envisioned in 1985 used a CRT as the display device, and it was a text-only display without any kind of navigation functionality.
The unfortunate casualty has been the use of standardized sizes for radios. There is no elegant way of placing an aftermarket radio in a modern car.
CDs are great, don’t know what you’re on about. They work a lot better if you don’t touch the shiny side.
For stationary setups CD's tend to be pretty nice! I mostly use them for data stuff, but I do occasionally take out an audio cd.
But, as you've experienced here, lasers die. It happened to my portable dvd player too.
Not cars though! Oh ho NO! The car jossling around from hitting bumps on the road is GUARANTEED to scratch your disks up.
When I worked at the High Fi shop before setting up my own repair business I bought a Marantze CD52 player at trade cost value in 1994 It still works even today no issues, although I dont use it very often, 'Philips invented the compact disk' and later Marantze Japan took over the trade via a merger if you ever come across such a unit hang on to it you might get lucky. But it all depends if it has been used too much all lasers do go bad over time I agree! however some brands really do excel in quality and last.
As the vehicle only has 6k miles on it and spent a long time at the beach, I wonder whether the CD just needs a clean. Still have the CD autochanger in my 2004 Jag and that works fine (cleaned twice).
The ideal car radio would have cassette, mp3 cds, usb, bluetooth, aux in, FM and digital radio
The same model radio, I think... in a 90's Ford Mercury Cougar, and my Mother was driving across country, (I wasn't there, but my grandmother was...), and a tape got stuck, They were listening to the Cassette single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by "Crash Test Dummies". I don't recall how they finally got it out or how many times the song played before they stopped it & that car was only a few years old at the time, though I'm sure the cassette player got a lot of use.
Curious about the Motorola two way radio mike in the shot at the end. Did this have a land mobile radio installed in it?
Ford used that same basic JBL radio for what seems like forever, I had an almost identical one in a 1984 Lincoln Town Car, albeit with ultra classy "Electronic Sound" script on the face plate. Actually still have two non working examples that died shortly after install and a random bag of parts from when I just rebuilt the original
Usually everything else about a Ford will fail you with exception to the radio, at least here in Australia
+1 for the Kenwood CD Changer! Sony ones were garbage. I had a 10 disc kenwood and it lasted for years, even after i rolled the car it still worked and got re-installed in the next one :)
Albert Luandrew aka sunnyland slim was a blues keyboard player in Chicago right after world war two and wrote sunnyland special.
I had that exact radio in a Ford Taurus. I am almost positive the AM band has a stereo decoder. Even if the vehicle goes, put that thing in a standalone box and you have a decent am stereo radio.
I had one of those magazines... going down bumpy roads was the worst for it..
Possible it is 106k, just highway miles, much less wear in those conditions. Plus you already know, they just made things better back then Shango. I'm happy with my 93 Dakota 4x4 v8, still going strong with 178k.
Trans would be grenaded before 100k miles. Look for signs of replacement to determine if it really has >100k. Could also pop a valve cover to know for sure.
Funny that you didn´t know this typical 90s setup: CD changer with FM IF output. I still have a JVC changer unit in my 88 Corvette. Works like a charm and you can keep the stock cassette AM FM radio while still listening to these new compacty disky things.
I haven't been in many of these, but I have fixed a few with LCD issues. The LCD contacts are mounted in foam, the foam loses a bit of elasticity and the contacts don't touch the board anymore. I would put a little thin cardboard to take up space and squish the LCD foam little tighter, and it would work fine.
Also I bet that CD changer just has a dirty lens. Q-tip, alcohol, you know. Not that you care, or should, even.
Clean the laser. There should be a remote to control the remote sensor. I used to get 2-3000 hours on Sony ES players and they'd play any discs, even blue dye computer burned discs burned at 24X speed. New lasers are cheapish, and those earlier mid 90s units sounded great and were hearty.
I upgraded to Clarion Pro Audio/McIntosh mobile audio in the mid to later 90s.
I still have that all McIntosh system in place in my 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.9 AWD, with 3:73 axle ratio,46RE trans, on a 4 1/2" suspension lift; with a full wrap around push bar warn X9000 winch, KC DaLiters, rolling on 32x11.50x16" BFG AT's with RWL. Spins on factory Argent 16x8" 5 spoke wheels. Original STONE White paint, hood heat extractors with new Agate interior, and every possible option.
In my 02 JGC Limited Trail Rated there is an all new custom built 4.7 HO motor, a 545RFE trans, 3:73 axles, Sure Grip rear diff, Vari-Loc Dana 35 front, fully loaded, factory indash Mopar CD player, feeding an Infinity 10 channel 476 watt amp, cassette player, CD controller for the CD changer located in the infant play area, OEM satellite radio, plus the factory GPS in dash touch screen Chrysler 1 1/2 DIN flat screen. Shes Dark Blue, rolling on Snowflake 17x8" wheels with 255 65 R17 Firestone Destination AT+3 tires and a level lift kit to do away with the soccer mom lean; front drive axle updated from a double CV front shaft to a Cardan Double joint at the NP247 Xfer case and a universal at the front axle. This eliminates the troublesome front double Rzeppa joint driveshaft that are the weak point, even for a 3" lift. Rzeppa joints dont like steep driveline angles. They are even weak on factory angles suspensions. Some fail at 10k miles some at 50k. Some fail over 100k miles but they ALL fail sooner or later.
Many of those Sony mobile auto audio CD changers were quite good. Some OEM automakers used Sony stuff, along with Hamon Kardon, Blaupunkt, and Alpine, plus Fujitsu Ten, Motorola Delco, and Lear audio as well as Panasonic/Matsushita.
It is totally true that the cheap 99 dollar Sony home or mobile multi optical player's were 100% crap. Whether RF coupled, or those that used the factory external switchable source input to the OEM head unit, the better more expensive units rocked, home and mobile as well. 2000 and later Sony left much tone desired, home or mobile.
Like you, I enjoy decent factory audio systems, even the much better balanced (cleaner and higher powered) 2 ohm Infinity mobile factory systems. I hate all Bose (blows) factory and home audio offerings, even those in the later Corvettes and Nissan's, which were leagues worse than even the expensive substandard Monsoon (Delco) systems in the C5 and later Vettes. Even the Harmon JBL systems in better FoMoCo products largely sounded better than any Bose offerings.
I love your channel Dan, and I look forward to your weekly updates. I've viewed most every video you've made since 2012. Please keep making them and dont quit anytime soon. I look forward to your weekly drops and wait from Thursdays on for something new to drop... whether its the electronics crash and burns, general automotive computer repair, or your most excellent Mine Explorations. I love them all, as well as your attitude and commentary. A man who speaks and thinks like me!
Rock-On my friend! Perhaps we'll meet up someday soon, in the deserts of the Southwest or on the local LA electronics scene.
I live in Hanover, Pa. Very close to Carlisle car fairgrounds and much of the best muscle car as well as vintage automobile and truck markets plus vehicle shows in the nation. Forget Mecum, or Barrett Jackson, they are obscenely overpriced, stodgy, fake, as well as boring to watch.
Chryslers at Carlisle (Mopars At Carlisle) is my favorite event of the season and the one to see if you ever get out this way.
We have lots of vintage TVs, stereo gear from the golden age of American electronics; all manner of electronics, test equipment, whatever your passion is, and the prices are still quite reasonable.
You live in the land of plenty, I live in the land of OZ! Peace be unto you my brother, as well as to Missus Shango, and all the Shango kitty's at large! Keep safe and stay healthy my friend !
For the last 10 years all my music is MP-3 . A Sony tape deck has provided road music for those 10 years.
I agree with your hypothesis on the milage.
Should you decide to get this rig ans fix thr cd changer, the lasers are fairly easy to obtain. Generics for thr most part work fine in these. If its made post 1990 it likely has a kss-210a or 212a laser in it
The real thing that killed these 10 disc changers was the rubber rollers shrinking that pulled the disc from the magazine. Disc would get stuck half way through loading. Your best bet for resurrection was to remove the rollers, and place a little glue on them, then heatshrink over them . That usually gave a couple more years of service.
Pioneer changers were a much better design overall but there are no laser available anymore. Plus, the transport hung over the disc, which not only stressed the grommets holding up the transport - which would sag and cause the focal point to change and not read a disc, or cause the disc to bind in worse case scenarios. Also not uncommon to see the glue fail holding the lens on, causing it to fall off inside the machine.
The kenwood and jvc changers (both used the jvc mech) are good designs, but poor use of plastics. Gears for the elevator and tray extraction crack and fail which will cause the machine to jam.
I have a soft spot for those ford radios with the green VFD.
That looks like a nice explorer from what I saw. I'd buy it.
The steering wheel leather doesn't look high mileage, same with the driver's floor mat, and the other things you showed.
An interesting note on ford's of this vintage, if you look at the spark plug wires the factory wires have the year printed on them. This probably still has them.
Had slightly older similar versions of that radio w and w/o cassette player in some mid-late 80s Fords. There is a small board at the back where the speaker harness plugs in. Got intermittent problems with 1 speaker cutting out.
Its been a while, but I think that board interfaced with the main board with a ribbon cable. It was either the pins in the board for the harness plug or the ribbon cable ends got cracked solder joints from vibration over the years. I resoldered them all and problem was fixed.
If intermittent speaker issues, check that after the speakers themselves.
I have a Sony tape deck with a 10 disc SonyCDX-600 it works great only problem I have I don't even own any CD's or tape's anymore
I agree, I believe this is a 6k mile vehicle as well.
Man I love you your awesome
I bet that cd player would work fine with a lube job on the laser slide. Whatever Sony put on has been baking in California weather for the last decades.
Didn't you get this car like 2 years ago? I remember the video on you starting it on propane and then changing the fuel pump, etc..
Great video! I remember you making a repair series on a '93 Explorer some 8+ years ago, which also had an issue with the tape player. Is this the same car?
The original ford radio sounded good.
How does it switch between the radio/tape and the CD changer? Does it plug inline with the factory harness and redirect the speaker connections to the changer whenever a CD is playing or is it something else?
The CD changer uses a FM modulator, in this case transmitting at 88.7MHz.
That cd player would have been so expensive I knew I'd never have one. The cd players that didn't have 30 seconds of error corrections memory weren't great in cars. I had a non-sony 'disc man' type thing with 45 seconds of error correction and it was actually ok in a car.
Those sony stereos are way better than the crap any car maker ever installed. Your crazy to think otherwise. I worked for Sony in the 90s. Their products were some of the best. Although I agree that cd players just don't last. The lasers are hung on plastic springs and they fall over time. Might work better on its side where the laser doesn't sag.
I had a 91 Lincoln town car and the factory stereo in that vehicle received a.m. stereo broadcasts. I wonder if that radio you have there has an a.m. stereo decoder in it?
The screen for the Sony CD changer has an 'IR' printed on it, suggesting that there's a wireless remote lost in the vehicle somewhere for it.
That it plays the start of the disc, then falls off makes me wonder if the sled/slides in the laser scanner assembly need cleaned and relubricated - the laser can read the table of contents and start into the first track at the center of the disk, but cannot move out, and it's running out of the limits of the tracking magnets in the laser scanner assy. Perhaps just repeated use would get it moving again, but then you've made your opinion known about CD's, so....
I had a Sony 10 disc cd changer in my 90 eclipse and it was a love hate relationship. It would skip so often it drove me nuts. I wonder if cleaning the laser lens would make yours work. All those voc's from the interior might be coating the lens.
For me id rather just have old good car radio always plays never fails you.
Those Sony CD players are not garbage. But then again you couldn’t figure out how to work it or had never seen an RF modulated CD changer LOL. I installed hundreds back in the day. It needs servicing but you probably won’t: former Sony Warranty Repair tech.
My dad had a 1997 F150 he bought in 2000 or 2001 from a friend of his to replace his 1991 Ranger XLT. The display got really dim and the radio died in 2008 or 2009. I think it might of had moisture in it too.
What is that Motorola microphone connected to?
The only CD players that I have had issues with were Sony ones. All of the other ones, never had issues.
Some had a wired controller. looked down between the seats or under the seats and some had a wireless remote. I know you didn't like Philco TVs and I have to say they're not very good but the radio department always made some good stuff. Be it from the 1930s through the Ford car radio era.
I would say the CD spindle motor is not quite running up to full speed at the start of the discs due to having been sat unused for a long period . Try a quick shot of contact cleaner in that motor. Repairing these for Sony was my day job back when that thing was new
There is never any wear on parking brake pedals ... no one ever uses them .. unless you have a stick...
I use them, because I live in a state where there's an annual safety inspection and if that parking brake is frozen/jammed it'll fail. Good way for that to happen is to never use it.
@@brianleeper5737 Just like pickup trucks and their spare tires that need to be cut down do to being rusted in position for years
You will want to re-cap the 3-Caps in the EEC-IV computer that controls the fuel injection and transmission. Just did mine on a 92 E150 van.