MEGA I.C.E installation not Kenwood subwoofer Corsa etc

[Angrydicky]

I've been meaning to do something about the radio in the Maestro for a while now. It had the original LW/MW push button one still fitted, which did work but when I replaced the ariel I simply cut the wire in the footwell and when I came to fit the new one found I couldn't get the new wire down the A pillar. So I was left with a radio that would have been fairly useless even if it was working, but all I got if I turned it on was static.

 

So, I was at the boot sale a few weeks ago and I picked up a 1980s Sharp radio/cassette for £2 that looked like it would fit in the slot. It was a bit of a gamble, the bloke said "yeah it works fine mate" but that's what they all say! It was in a homemade wooden surround and apparently was fitted in a caravan. My reasoning behind fitting the radio cassette would be that I could then listen to my ipod via a cassette adapter, so even if I couldn't get the ariel connected without removing the dashboard I would still be able to listen to music on the move.

 

Not fancying the job of fitting the radio, I farmed out the job to my local car spares shop, Chaucer Motor Factors of Canterbury who were pleased to see the Maestro again and equally pleased to see the radio I had lined up for it "we used to fit loads of these back in the day!"

I wondered off for an hour while it was being fitted, bought a cassette adapter from Maplins and wandered back. It looked good, and fitted well in the slot. Connected up the adapter, ooh, music! Unfortunately it only lasted about four seconds before it ejected the tape. So I googled the problem, found a forum thread about how to use a cassette adapter with an auto-reverse stereo you have to take it apart and remove a small component. Which I did. And with this done, I had music for about 20 minutes before it ejected the tape. Now, it goes for anything between 4 seconds and 20 minutes before either ejecting the tape, or the music simply goes really quiet (so all you can hear is the noise of the adapter cogs whirring). Turning the radio off and back on again (then pushing the tape back in) fixes the problem for a bit.

 

My question is, do any more knowledgeable shiters have any pointers for getting this radio to work reliably? Now I've paid to have it installed, I don't really want to rip it out again if I can help it! It was really dusty when I first got it, so I get the impression it hadn't been used in quite a while.

 

 

 

 

 

[Lacquer Peel]

I remember my dad bemoaning Sharp radio cassettes as shit back in the day, based on the one in our Chevette that chewed cassettes.

[Pillock]

It'll have some sort of mechanism that detects when it's at the end of the tape, and ejects. This can be as simple as "I'm turning one spool, is the other one turning?" and if not, eject before the tape stretches.

 

Some of these cassette adaptors have a band between the two spools so when you turn one, the other turns too and tricks the player into keeping going.

[trigger]

I imagine it's just a case of being a bit shit like LP just said. Now it's been wired up a replacement should be a doddle to fit.

[hauserplenty]

You'll have to remove it, I'm afraid, but I would check the condition of the belts and the motor. You might* be able to get away with cutting one of the motor wires, thus disabling any sort of end-of-tape detection.

Or rendering the whole thing useless.

You could also try simply removing the belt.

Sometimes you can also remove a spring or lever somewhere which will disable the auto-reverse mechanism, which is what it sounds like is giving you trouble. Once it's stuck in Play mode with no way to cancel it you should be all right. Leave the cassette adaptor in while you do this, of course, since you won't want to undo all our hard work and then risk it not working ever again.

 

I used to fix loads of these back in the day...

 

* Last resort.

[HH-R]

DUZ IT DO IPOD M8

 

Could be a dodgy adaptor? One of my autoreverse tape decks does this with real tapes but only some of them, they must be getting worn or something. The tape deck itself must be 20 years old saying that.

[Eddie Honda]

Forget about the tape converter and use one of these?

 

 

I only toasted mine because it didn't like 24V very much. Worked fine in the car though.

[Minimad5]

Why don't you retro-fit a 3.5mm jack to the rear of it, and keep the cable hidden behind the centre console
Done it once to an old POS radio, not that hard if you're handy with a soldering iron.

[trigger]

I'd like to do that to my radio in the Dolomite but I haven't a clue what you solder too!

[scaryoldcortina]

^ best place is usually at the input to the volume control.

[trigger]

I did Google it the other day but I'd looked a bit complicated!

[scaryoldcortina]

The volume control is a divider - there will be three wires or contacts. One side is grounded, the middle one is the output to the amplifier and the other one is the signal input.

[Slartibartfast]

I would gut the internals out. Fit a car amp somewhere out of sight. Route a 3.5mm audio jack (or even a bluetooth adapter) into the cassette slot of the now gutted head unit through to the amp. Get an external volume control for the amp and connect it to the volume control of the head unit.

[John F]

Angrydicky, on 24 Nov 2015 - 10:31 PM, said:

... my local car spares shop, Chaucer Motor Factors of Canterbury.

 

 

Mine too, back in the late 1980s... 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Does the Shittania Music Club, run by the inestimable Mr Incosistant not have any quality* choonz left?

[Taff]

The volume control is a divider - there will be three wires or contacts. One side is grounded, the middle one is the output to the amplifier and the other one is the signal input.

 

some sort of wiring diagram would be a help mate.

[Slartibartfast]

some sort of wiring diagram would be a help mate.

 

Here you go http://theamcforum.com/forum/mp3-player-with-old-radio-one-solution_topic16338.html

[Noel Tidybeard]

if you cant fit a aerial to a maestro you have no right being here- phail

 

to be honest it isnt as hard as one may think- the panel in the footwell does come out revealing a big hole from which to retrive the end of wire when stuffed down pilar- ask me how i know

[Angrydicky]

Oooh, interesting. I'll have to have a closer look at the dash as I didn't notice a removable panel. May have to come back to you on that one! Was it definitely on an early dash Maestro like this one, as opposed to a later one with a Montego dash?

 

As for this cassette player, it seems to now work perfectly for about 20 minutes then start ejecting the tape every minute or so. Does anyone have a decent working period cassette player that will fit in the slot? 

[Austin-Rover]

The aerial should make it's appearance into the car about half way down the vertical part of the A pillar - about level with and just behind the shelf above your shins. There is a removable panel just above this shelf (where the steering column goes through the lower part of the dash - but I doubt removing it will help you.

 

You'll find that threading a completely new aerial down the A pillar is an impossible job. You'll get it down the side of the windscreen with a lot of jiggling, but the A post from the bottom of the windsceen down is stuffed with foam bricks (actual housebrick sized). There are some small holes in the pillar (if you feel behind the dashboard) that you can get a couple of fingers in to feel the bricks. However, unless you can clear all the foam bricks from the lower part of the pillar a new aerial is going to be a whole world of shit.