Help with my stock CD player

[Bugman Jeff]

The stock CD player in my '97 GTS doesn't work. Here's what it does: Any time I turn the ignition on, the player tries to eject a disc, even if no disc is present. When I try to insert a disc, it will not **** the disc in, doesn't matter if the radio is on or off. If I push a disc in, it won't play, but still ejects ok. Any time it ejects, the ejector mechanism click multiple times. Here's a video showing exactly what it's doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phnhIMDlGMQ

Am I just a ***** and just don't know how to operate it, or is my CD player broken? If it's broken, is it something I can fix without replacing the whole unit? Thanks for the help.

 

[99 R/T 10]

No, sounds to me like the mechanism is just bad. Switch out the radio. Pretty easy, check your ***.

 

[dmerkle]

Let me know what you end up doing for your radio.
I'm looking at replacing mine this winter but from what I've researched, their isn't a "housing" offered for the gen II Vipers.
I found a wiring harness through parts rack I believe, but I'm not interested in modding my dash if I can avoid it.

 

[Andrew2KRT10]

It sounds like you have something no longer interested in insertion, trade in for a new model. Isn't that a problem us guys all face eventually ?

 

[Bugman Jeff]

And here I thought getting a Viper would increase my insertion opportunities

 

[Bugman Jeff]

Ah Ha! I think I've found the problem. Maybe anyway. I had the CD player section out of the radio chassis(only 4 screws hold the CD player assemble into the radio chassis), and I made a discovery. The bottom of the CD player has three ribbon cable connecting the bottom circuit board to the rest of CD player. When I pulled them out of their housings, I noticed that there were little dents in the contact surfaces. From the digital speedo in another car of mine, I know that this can cause all sorts of odd behavior. The way these contacts work is there is a spring loaded "finger" that presses on the cable contact pad. Over time, the spring tension can dent the cable, making contact spotty. I wiggled these cables around a bit, and reassembled everything. Low and behold, it works! I'll test it out for a few weeks, if it goes wonky again I've got a technique for filling in the little dents that I'll try out. Here's a pic of the bottom of the CD player section. You can see dents in the cable. All three of the ribbon cables have similar little cable dents.

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