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Sunday, August 25, 2019

Fixing stuff

One of the members of our church purchased a small "All-in-one" stereo system at the annual church garage sale.

The unit she purchased was an Emerson MS-9700.  The MS-9700 contains a 6 CD changer, cassette tape player, AM/FM radio receiver, built-in amplifier, and external-wired speakers.  It was not a high-quality item when it was new, and she paid very little for it at the garage sale.  The owner's manual that I found online is dated 2003.



The little stereo ended up on my work bench because the tray that holds the six compact disks would not open or close.  I told the lady that I'd like to have a shot at making repairs before she threw the thing in the trash.

It didn't take very long to figure out what the problem was.  The drive belts were dried up, loose, and stiff.  The motors would spin, but couldn't get traction on the loose belts.  I put some new belts on order, but it took forever for them to arrive.  I bought a package containing a variety of belt sizes because of course direct-replacement parts are not available.

I replaced both belts - one for the eject function, and another for the table that rotates the disks to the front for loading.  Next I lubricated the sliding parts.  It's a pretty inexpensive unit - the disk changer has plastic rails that slide on a plastic support frame.  I lubricated these with silicone - I figured oil-based lubricant might harm the plastic.

As a test I dropped a Molly Hatchet CD in and pushed the eject button.  The door closed up and music started playing.  Win! 

EDIT:
 It just occurred to me that I should probably test the cassette player.  It will probably also need the drive belt replaced.  I overlooked that, because I haven't used magnetic tape in a couple of decades - but that doesn't mean that the owner doesn't use them.

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