95 GT Mach 460 CD player problem

[IBleedBlue]

Has anybody experienced problems with the CD players on the older Mach 460 systems hanging up CD's when they are loaded? It kind of makes a clicking noise and continues until it eventually loads and starts playing. If so, any luck fixing it?

[Stryker]

I have the same problem with the Mach 460 in my 94 GT. It clicks over and over when I insert a CD and it "may" play the cd. I just don't play CDs anymore. I was thinking about getting a new stereo, but Best Buy told me they would bypass the amps during installation.

[IBleedBlue]

Stryker, I've heard it is hard to swap these out. Saw a set on e-bay for $45.00 but sounded like it would be taking a chance. I might just pull it out and open it up and see if I can fix it. If I do I'll post back out here again and let you know what I did.

[Grey but Game]

I just had to tear my deck apart to clean the laser. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way about some of it (had the cd pull-in mechanism timed wrong and I may have blown the motor) but after doing it I can say that it's possible you could fix it yourself if you pay very close attention to where everything goes when you take it apart.

1 - There is a special tool to pull the deck out of the dash but you can do it with a ice punch or test light probe. It's just a pain in the arse that way.

2- remove the face plate and top of the deck. Be careful removing the face, there's a ribbon connector that needs to be unplugged

3- Only 4 screws hold the drive in. Again there is a ribbon connector

4- Now with the cd slot facing you look closely at how the gearing on the right side goes together. There is a black spring steel piece that goes over a knob that comes off of one of the plastic gear actuators. I suspect this area may be the problem. Either that metal actuator is out of place or there is some gear wear. If it's gear wear I don't know where new ones could be found.

5- If you need to go into the drive then there is a small coil spring on the top that needs to removed first. In the cd slot you will see a spring loaded door that has two rubber coated prongs. Be certain to hold down on that door when you remove the top. Then immediately look at the springs on each side of that door once the top is removed. These will most likely fly off at some point but they are not that hard to reinstall as long as you know where they go.

Hope this helps. If I would have know some of these things before I tore into mine I'd be jammin again by now. Now I need to find more info on fuse locations etc. since I don't have a manual. Oh, by the way mine is a '96 but I think the decks are the same.

[Stryker]

Thanks Grey!
Very Helpful Info!! I will attempt to open it up in a couple of weeks. I'll let ya know how it comes about.

[AirFix]

I just opened my CD deck tonight searching for the same problem you are all complaining about.

One thing that helps to visualize the problem...

After you have the top of the deck removed, go plug it back into your car. You can actually see the mechanism skipping around.

Strangly enough, on mine, there is nothing wrong with the gearing at all. There appears to be a small solenoid that pushes the CD out. You can see it just under and behind the gears. Mine had red windings. Mine appears to not have the power to push up the actuator anymore.

If someone here has figured this one out, lets hear about it. I like the looks of the factory CD and I really don't want to redo the entire system just to drop in another player.