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.
