22.12.2004: Clarion CD changer repair

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22.12.2004: Clarion CD changer repair

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22.12.2004: 5. Finished
Here's the finished assembly with an extra bump stop to fill the gap and the wires soldered on to restore the broken connections. The changer works now.

[..^ up ^..]

The stereo head unit on a 1994-1998 Saab 900 does not have a CD player, which is a bit strange for an entry luxury car of the mid-90s. However, it does support Clarion C-Bus CD changers. Just plug and play.

I went on eBay and bought a Clarion RDC605 CD changer for $52. Plugged it in... and it didn't play. Here are the symptoms:

the changer loads the cartridge and checks every slot for CDs;
when you select "CD" on the head unit, the changer attempts to select the first available CD;
the SID displays CD1 WAIT for a few seconds, and then switches to the radio;
subsequent attempts to press "CD" on the head unit result in a brief message CD1 TRK 01 and then the unit switches back to radio again.

If you take off the cover and watch the changer trying to load a CD, you discover that it would indeed try to pull a CD from the cartridge, load it into the player, and then do it again, and again, and then stop after a few more attempts.