rs_t

Love the interior!

myrmidon

In my case I was very lucky - the PO had left the removal 'keys' in the glove box. (Thank goodness because they had an odd shape that I would not have been able to easily reproduce without something to copy.)

(If this piece is TL;DR, then simply jump ahead to the pics)

So, on the topic of audio - when I purchased the car, the seller included a Blaupunkt Reno SQR46 in the deal. (The correct radio for a 1986 is a Blaupunkt Monterey SQR23, but I thought I would use the Reno in the interim until I find a nice Monterey somewhere)

When I asked the seller whether the radio worked or not, he responded with "I don't know, but it doesn't matter whether it works or not, just that you have it so that if you ever sell the car the next buyer will want a period radio". I immediately interpreted this to be 'sales speak' that indirectly translates to "this radio is broken". :-)

Anyway, after pulling the aftermarket radio and restoring the harness back to OEM status, I plugged in the Reno. To my absolute surprise when I switched it on, the radio worked!

Then I turned my attention to the tape player. When I got the radio, there was already a tape in the deck, but it wouldn't play or eject. So I opened up the Reno to take a look inside, and discovered that the tape wasn't all the way down in the 'loaded' position, but rather half-way up. When I lifted the tape and mech upwards I saw the obstruction underneath were a few pieces of glass (windshield glass) so this radio has a story. When I removed those, the tape dropped into position. I anxiously tried to play the tape, but no joy, I discovered the tape was snapped and the reels were just spinning.

Then I tried to remove the tape. I discovered that (somehow) the tape had been inserted into the deck, but the 'dust cover' was back in the closed position (this should remain 'up' when a tape is pushed through it) - I have no idea how someone got it into this state. With the tape being snapped, and a recorded (not original) tape I didn't care much for it, so out came the dremel to cut the corner off the tape, after which I could 'lift' the flap and eject the snapped tape.

I then rushed to grab one of my tapes (yep, I still have a few) and inserted into the deck. It played, but only kind-of. The tape played in one direction, but the speed was very 'warbly' and wouldn't play at all in the other direction. I was a bit bummed because the progress has been so good so far. I suspected this meant a broken/stretched belt.

I ejected my tape, and decided to remove the entire tape mechanism from the head unit for closer inspection. Turns out the belt is still in OK condition (I ordered a replacement from TurntableNeedles.com for good measure):



I also then discovered that there was some tape wrapped around one of the pinch rollers (which is probably why it wouldn't play in that direction), so I removed that. At this point I thought it was time for another test, so I reassembled everything and inserted my tape...

...nothing! Now the tape wouldn't play in either direction - damn! I took it apart again, and messed some more with the mechanical parts. While diagnosing earlier I had messed around with some of the mechanical gears and it might not be in the 'zero' position. I turned some gears until something seem to reset, and then reassembled another time...

This time it worked! Tape plays in both directions, and sounds good. My replacement belt hadn't arrived yet, but because everything seemed to work well mechanically, I decided to install it into the car for a while.

Here are some pics of the installed unit - it looks great!



I am only using it in 2-channel mode, still routed through the OEM fader:




Now I am trying to hunt down a manual. I see that folks are attempting to sell old copies (or reprints) for crazy money on Ebay, surely someone must have a soft-copy somewhere? (If anyone has any ideas please PM me).

All I have is this:

sugarwood

Good effort on the radio.
Now ‘shut up and drive already’ ;-)

spinfree

Hey, I think I'm the new owner of this car. Looks identical, same color, same interior, same details. Lovely car — thanks for bringing the original radio back to life.

redridge

wow. you got yourself a nice 86!