Head unit won't eject cassette

Hammer24

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
428
Location
Melbourne, Australia
For years now I've been using a cassette to aux adapter in my factory head unit to play my own music (2000 Sport), recently it's had a bit of trouble ejecting it and now it won't eject it at all. I've looked into replacing it with one of the refurbished factory head units with bluetooth from 1factoryradio.com but there's nothing in stock. I definitely want to keep a stock radio because I hate how every aftermarket head unit looks so does anyone know if there's any way I can fix mine? When I press eject it makes a noise like it's trying to eject, but I can see the tape isn't actually moving, then it pops up with ERR EJECT on the screen. Thanks
 
  • Wow
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What’s a cassette?
It was a high tech "upgrade" from the 8 track. 🥺
In 1968, a dashboard car radio with a built-in cassette tape player was introduced by Philips. In subsequent years, cassettes supplanted the 8-track and improved the technology, with longer play times, better tape quality, auto-reverse, and Dolby noise reduction. They were popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
 
  • Haha
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8 tracks were the pinnacle of automotive audio technology. There's nothing better than hearing that satisfying 'kathunk' of the internal drive switching tracks mid-song. Speaking of which, my deck is due for a spring cleaning and tune up. Gotta replace the belt!

As far as getting your cassette out, it sounds like the eject function is electronic vs mechanical? When you press the eject button do you see any movement at all? You can try getting a long flat screwdriver in there under the cassette to apply gentle pressure as you press the button, see if you can get it to pop up.
 
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8 tracks were the pinnacle of automotive audio technology. There's nothing better than hearing that satisfying 'kathunk' of the internal drive switching tracks mid-song. Speaking of which, my deck is due for a spring cleaning and tune up. Gotta replace the belt!

As far as getting your cassette out, it sounds like the eject function is electronic vs mechanical? When you press the eject button do you see any movement at all? You can try getting a long flat screwdriver in there under the cassette to apply gentle pressure as you press the button, see if you can get it to pop up.
Yeah i've tried that with a knife, no luck. I can hear some sort of mechanism moving when I press eject but I can't see anything moved.
 
If you are using one of the stock stereos, the likely culprits are the rubber "bumpers" (I don't know the technical name of the parts) have started to turn to a mushy, rubbery glue after all these years. If you are somewhat technically proficient, you can pull the stereo, disassemble and remove the cassette component and restore it. Or you can hack into the audio circuit and solder in an aux input so that you can just run an aux cable (this is what I have done-works great). If you are really adventurous, you can add Bluetooth but this takes a few extra steps and some extra parts.

Edited to add: the rubbery glue stuff is really tough and takes a chemical like alcohol or other strong paint remover, gently applied with cotton swabs, in order to clean and release the mechanism.
 
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If you are using one of the stock stereos, the likely culprits are the rubber "bumpers" (I don't know the technical name of the parts) have started to turn to a mushy, rubbery glue after all these years. If you are somewhat technically proficient, you can pull the stereo, disassemble and remove the cassette component and restore it. Or you can hack into the audio circuit and solder in an aux input so that you can just run an aux cable (this is what I have done-works great). If you are really adventurous, you can add Bluetooth but this takes a few extra steps and some extra parts.

Edited to add: the rubbery glue stuff is really tough and takes a chemical like alcohol or other strong paint remover, gently applied with cotton swabs, in order to clean and release the mechanism.
thanks for the response, would there be some sort of write up on this?
 
Before 8 tracks there were these guys, not sure how you kept them from skipping on bumps.

99241547_XS.jpg
 
Before 8 tracks there were these guys, not sure how you kept them from skipping on bumps.

View attachment 241643
If the car in that photo rides anything like my '76 Mercury, there are barely any bumps. I can hit a speed bump at 30mph & barely feel it. BTW my recommended tire pressure according to the doorjamb sticker is something like 26 psi. Don't want to compromise any ride quality!
 
I can tell you exactly what's wrong with it.

It's not an 8 track.

For real man...I pulled the forum up and WHOA.....there was a title that said cassette. I thought oh my dear lord this can't be real. By the power of grayskull...it's a serious thread about a cassette. 😯😯😯
 
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Factory 1 doesn’t do aux in’s anymore, I called and asked.

I’ve got my last 2 radios from M&R Auto Electronics. Check their website, or call them at 989-790-2949.

Real nice folks. They’ll put an aux in line on the unit for $75, that’s what they quoted me.

You could check if they have a tape/radio in stock, or upgrade to a CD unit with an aux in for your music.

They say they’l repair your radio if you want. I had them put a new CD drive in my original player.

Give them a try, and good luck! 😸
 
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What's really funny is listening to kids tell you your old tech is dumb while they listen to truncated sound of compressed files on shitty headphones.

It's amazing how poor audio is getting with soundbars, beats headphones, and similar shit.

Then they watch movies on their phones. I set up the acoustics of my theater space to maximize sound reproduction. We watched a movie once and the kids kept looking around at the small noises the would hear out of different speakers.

I'd take an old tube vinyl player over a streaming iFruit any day. Way more frequencies being transmitted. But I have insanely good hearing and perfect pitch. At 51 I can still hear things young kids do. It's why I talk softly; because it's loud to me.
 
It was a high tech "upgrade" from the 8 track. 🥺
In 1968, a dashboard car radio with a built-in cassette tape player was introduced by Philips. In subsequent years, cassettes supplanted the 8-track and improved the technology, with longer play times, better tape quality, auto-reverse, and Dolby noise reduction. They were popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Bow Wow Wow,s first hit was c30 c60 c90 Go! They never released any songs on vinyl to start with only cassettes because Malcom McLaren's belief was cassettes were the way of the future along with the Sony Walkman and stealing everyone else's music for free :) Fuck I am getting old :(

 
  • Haha
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