Clean That Deck! - OE Tape Deck Cleaning (with wiring diagrams)

[Zenobian_84]

Tired and frustrated with sub-par, intermittent radio strength? Radio looking disheveled and dusty? Cassettes just not wanting to play anymore? If you answered yes to any of these, then have I got the hook-up for you, so to speak. Follow this handy radio cleaning guide to refresh and (somewhat) restore your AMC / Chrysler tape decks back to OE standards. If this doesn't get you back up and running, then at least you can be at a good point to further diagnose your radio troubles. 

 

This guide will only cover the OE tape decks offered by both AMC and Chrysler specifically for the MJ / XJ platforms. Since there were 4 different tape decks for AMC cars during the mid-80s (A/M; A/M-F/M; A/M-F/M DNR; AM/FM Electronically Tuned Dolby Surround) with each having minor differences in design and function, they will be covered separately, if I am able to procure more by chance. To my knowledge, there were just as many Chrysler decks offered; those should be virtually the same (barring a few minor differences) and will possibly be covered, should I happen to stumble across some at a P&P.

 

First and foremost, a useful video to watch to familiarize yourself with some of the internals of the tape deck. Though it covers a stationary non-vehicle type of deck, most of the same rules will still apply while cleaning either.

 

 

Tools you will need for the job.

 

91% Isopropyl Alcohol; I do not recommend lower than 90%, as the lower you go, the more water soluble the "final" solution is, thus, the higher chance you can cause corrosion of delicate parts inside of these brittle components.

Precision screwdriver set (phillips and flathead preferably)

Q-Tips

Big Phillips-head screwdriver 

Small cloth to wipe away dirt, etc.

 

Beer is also optional, though very helpful. :yes:

 

Looking at the back reveals some useful information.  :idea:

 

 

 

Take two small screwdrivers and pry off the small dials on the front face-plate. Be careful as you do it though, they tend to bend easily as the plastic is soft. The upper knobs are more forgiving to pressure being applied to them. They are also separated into halves, with the front button controlling volume and tuning, while the back half with the nub controls the speaker orientation. These can be separated at the halves and pulled off.

 

 

With the knobs removed, you should be at this point. You may notice small shim-like pieces hugging against the actual knob-stems (On-Volume stem), they are there to keep the plastic knobs firmly held against the unit; you have to remove these to get the face plate off. I have some missing, and didn't notice any difference in how the knobs held against the stems versus ones with the shims when completely installed. :dunno:

 

 

 

Next you can proceed to remove the metal housing piece that attaches the deck to a tab inside the dash above the HVAC controls.

 

 

 

One difference worth noting is that some units use an all black screw type setup, whereas some will use 3 with 2 small silver screws (seen below). I'm not sure why this is, really. :hmm:

 

 

Once the plate is removed, you can begin to remove the face-plate mounting screws. The setup is the same for all AMC radios I've come across. 4 screws, with two being cylindrical tower-types.

 

 

Once you have removed the face-plate screws, gently pull the plate away from the knob stems. Pay close attention to the small ground wire coming out from underneath the bass stem, as it connects to the tin face-plate backing. Unscrew the cable from the face-plate and set it aside; tuck the ground out of the way next to the stem if needed.

 

 

With the face plate out of the way, you should be seeing something similar to this.

 

 

A closer look inside reveals... Colorado dust. :yes: At least that what it seems like. The captstans and pinch rollers look like they've seen better days; as has the mounting deck and gear sprockets.  :ack:

 

 

Before proceeding to clean the insides, (which you can do right now with the Q-Tips if you'd like) I'd recommend taking the top cover off and inspecting the circuit board below. 4 mounting screws that shouldn't give you any problems. 

 

 

Now, be forewarned about what you'll see in the inside. If I'm right in my theory, most of the AMC decks should look like this, with very minor differences between them as stated previously. As you can see, mine's covered in quite a bit of caked on dirt. Partially due in part to the vent grille on the top of the radio to let excess heat escape during operation. This is where most of your cleaning should take place, because if the motherboard and solder "hills" are covered in dust or dirt, they can hinder good connections inside the deck itself.

 

When using the Q-tips on the board, make absolutely sure that you do not leave any lint behind on the solder points or the board itself. Take your time with this portion of the cleaning process, because if you make a mistake here, you can potentially fry the circuit board and make these simple repairs a moot point.   :smart: If you look near the volume stem on the picture below, you can see a brownish sort of wax-substance covering several wires on top of the board (rosin-soldering flux); I opted not to tinker with it (it's cracking in some spots and brittle from age) but may decide to re-apply some when I'm able to bench test this particular deck in the future. On top of the deck is a small opening you can worm a Q-Tip through to better clean the capstans and rollers than through the front cassette opening.

 

 

Different angle; same amount of dirt. Be sure to remove excess alcohol from the Q-Tip before wiping the board down. This is also about where I got up to get another beer.  :group beer:

 

 

Looking back at the front of the tape deck, the grey film "protector" can be peeled back and removed. It simply hangs onto several small nubs and LED's in the front. Be sure to clean this surface underneath. I cleaned the LED's and button mounts while I was at it; (be gentle here too)  :)

 

 

After the deck has been cleaned inside and out be sure to show the face-plate and knobs some love. Do not use alcohol to clean these however, as the solution will wipe the color right off of them.  :( Go for an upholstery cleaner or some sort of "foaming" cleaner. Some gentle elbow grease can make these look as good as they were when new.  :chillin: Something else worth noting, is that if you notice the buttons seem to "stick" in their holes, you can actually remove them and replace the small square "sponge" type material that they sit on top of. Usually if they're recessed into the slot, the sponge material needs to be replaced.  :fs2:

 

 

At the end of your cleaning, you should be left with something looking like this.

 

 

 

Quite a difference from before, eh? I'll probably go back in and give everything another run down sometime in the near future. Currently as I write this, I'm trying to get my AMC Dolby Surround unit cleaned up.  :thwak: Hopefully this will help some of you prolong the life of your stock radio. As far as actual wiring diagrams for these things, I'm still trying to scour around and locate something. :dunno: Maybe I'll get lucky and stumble across something one of these days.