I was pretty excited at the fact that the original CR-905 head unit was still working in my Volvo 940 when I bought it and the radio functions perfectly fine. However, when I tried loading in a cassette, I could hear the motors turning but nothing was playing.

I decided that I’d open up the head unit and see what was going on. After disconnecting the battery and disconnecting all but the thick black power connector to the head unit, I was able to pop off the metal shroud and look inside at the tape deck. I couldn’t see anything fundamentally wrong with it so I thought it would be best to just leave it be. I placed a nearly microscopic quantity of silicon lubricant around some sticking metal parts, then reconnected the battery and head unit, loaded in a cassette and watched to see what would happen. Again, the motors were whirring away but the cassette was not playing. I know the issue isn’t the cassette. I’m at a point now where I’m not really sure what to do, as I’m unfamiliar with the mechanics of this tape deck, I can’t find any user manuals in English let alone technical manuals, and I don’t want to risk destroying a thirty year old tape deck that could be fixed easily by somebody with more expertise.

So, with that said, do any of you jeenyus eggheads have any idea how to go about fixing it? Alternatively, if you know of anybody in Sydney capable of reconditioning/restoring this original head unit then please give the their contact.

I know it would be easier, cheaper, more practical, less time consuming, and more modern to install a cheap single DIN head unit but there’s just something so uniquely cool about retaining the original head unit.

    Sydney940 So, with that said, do any of you jeenyus eggheads have any idea how to go about fixing it?

    I'm not an egghead, just hard boiled....

    If there's no volunteers from Sydney, Craig Rasmussen from the SA Volvo club is maybe your best bet for fixing these things. IIRC he has parts on hand, or at least knows how to get them, and won't charge Volvo Tax.

      Casette decks for home have a rubber band that turns the capstan. Can't speak about your specific deck but it's likely it used a "rubber belt" "tires on the pinch wheel. They wear out but with careful measurement you should be able to find a replacement. Regard your deck as a home unit as far as servicing goes. Then you will find good info on the net. https://www.tapeheads.net/threads/learning-how-to-service-cassette-decks.79395/

      Sydney940 Found this site. https://www.dndservices.co.uk/COD/?TR_ManuName=50&TR_model_name=11467

      It has some useful info but if you have opened up the unit already here you find how to remove the tape mechanism. In the picture, circled in orange, is the tape motor. Once you remove the mechanism you should be able to see the belt on the motor. If it's not there hopefully it's floating around inside so you can measure it to order an equivelent length belt. Check the pinch rollers(look like tires on a post) in case they have detoriated.

      I'm hoping to install an original radio in my 240 but I'm going to be replacing capacitors in it. Not sure how it will sound. Maybe I'll put an Alpine unit in the glovebox, good luck.

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          If the CR905 is similar to the CR728 there is a plastic gear that is known for turning to mush and falling apart. This is what happened to mine almost 20 years ago. Back then I was quoted around $100 by someone to make a new one.

          I can't find the photos I took at the time but I think the gear was near the tape drive motor.

          I just did a quick search on Google and found a couple of posts on the UK forum where people have had trouble with that little gear.

          https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=334180

          https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=279969

            While I understand the attraction of restoration, have you considered the embiggened functionality of replacing the innards with modern (Bluetooth & aux-input & digital-media-player) ones and just retaining the exterior appearance? Tapes are horrible things compared to a CD …

              Brad I had read that the plastic gears tend to perish after a while so this was one of my initial suspicions. I was thinking that once I have everything disassembled, I'll try and get somebody to 3D print all of the necessary cogs. I'll probably see if I can get an odometer cog printed while I'm at it so that I can restore the original gauge cluster on my car too.

                Forg Yeah 100% get where you're coming from. The beauty of this little unit is that it also comes with the capability to play from a six-stack CD player, provided the original owner splurged for that option at the dealership. I figured that I could try and gut the internals and replace it with something similar but if it's got the capability for radio, cassette, and CDs, as well as bluetooth from my radio adapter, then I'd be silly to throw it all away. The unit works flawlessly other that this little finnicky thing with the cassette player.

                I'm still trying to work out whether the CR-905 is an Alpine unit, because if it is, I'll go ahead and buy one of the CD stacks off of @Major Ledfoot as he has one in his 940T or 960.

                  Forg you could do both, you could hijack the pre-amp signals from the tape read head, send it through a daughter board where you have a Bluetooth receiver and interrupt the tape output when you have audio coming in via BT.

                  For example, this board, which has line in and mic in circuits you could hijack, as well as an auto cut-out feature for when you have audio coming in via BT.

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