Hi all,
I picked up a 99 LX back in December, and this site has been a great resource both before and after purchase. I wanted to wait until I had something to contribute back before posting up.
Details: 1999 LX 470 195k miles. Smoky topaz (I know, I believe it has had quite a bit of repainting done already). The only paint issues it had when I first looked at it were on the "soft parts" The C pillar vents had the typical fading issues, and all of the clear coat had blown off of the side mirrors. The dealership did quite a bit of paint and body work prior to me taking delivery. Here it is the day I picked it up late December.
And back home:
I'm setup with techstream now and have a few containers of new AHC fluid that I need to flush once it stops raining long enough to crawl around on the driveway. So far I'm just cleaning up some minor issues. She'll need a timing belt service this spring, and I have a slight rear axle leak on the driver side.
But, now on to the main topic of the thread. This truck has the Nakamichi stereo, and I might be the only person on earth who actually likes the factory look/feel and sound. It "worked" but had two annoying issues. The first of which which was the left channel would cut in and out, but would come back if you quickly adjusted the volume. That I knew from my vintage stereo work was a classic symptom of a dirty volume potentiometer.
The other issue was I was somehow the only person with one of these that had a working CD changer. But, beginning around track 5 or 6 of each CD played, it would start skipping. So, out it came and on the bench.
The first interesting thing is the volume an function knobs are part of the logic board on the faceplate, not attached to the main body of the unit itself. Gently work the plastic clips off all the way around and the faceplate with knobs will separate from the main unit.
Remove the screws securing the two smaller boards along both edges, as well as the CD loading slot and you will then have access to the knob side.
The potentiometers looked like sealed units, not the 1960s open type I'm used to, no place to spray contact cleaner in. But, I thought I might be able to drip some in through the shaft opening. I use DeOxit D5, and applied it to the shaft and let it work its way inside. I then put the knob back on and worked it back and forth through its full range of movement 100 times.
Next I continued to break the unit down to get access to the CD changer. My aim here was to clean the laser with isopropyl alcohol, and attempt to clean/regrease the transport sled the laser runs on.
Top cover off, it looks like the case is used as a heat sink for some transistors, careful to keep the thermal paste in place, or be prepared to apply more during reassembly.
You can now see the CD changer works. This thing is fiendishly complex, and I started to realize there was no way I could easily access the laser transport mechanism. It was here that I made my big mistake. I spun the changer mechanism to separate the trays hoping it would give me better access. It didn't, I was able to get a cotton swab with isopropyl alcohol on the laser, which you can just barely peeking out to the left of the CD spindle.
I put it all back together, back in the truck, hopeful the cleaning had at least helped. And.....I've now joined the ranks of ERROR 3 Nakamichi owners. I pulled it back out, and back apart thinking it didn't like the fact that when I reset the mechanism I had it bottomed out. So, I reset the trays to the mid-point of their travel hoping it would cause the unit to reset, but no luck. It didn't even sound like it tried, so I'm thinking once ERROR 3 is set, it needs to be cleared before the unit will allow the mechanism to move again.
If I could get my hands on a service manual, I'm sure I could get it to work again, as I know there is no physical damage. I tried several combinations of button press/hold hoping I'd stumble on something, but no luck.
So, there you have it, I was 50% successful as the left channel/volume control issues are now fixed. Hopefully at least having some more info/pics of the inside of this unit on the board is helpful.
I picked up a 99 LX back in December, and this site has been a great resource both before and after purchase. I wanted to wait until I had something to contribute back before posting up.
Details: 1999 LX 470 195k miles. Smoky topaz (I know, I believe it has had quite a bit of repainting done already). The only paint issues it had when I first looked at it were on the "soft parts" The C pillar vents had the typical fading issues, and all of the clear coat had blown off of the side mirrors. The dealership did quite a bit of paint and body work prior to me taking delivery. Here it is the day I picked it up late December.
And back home:
I'm setup with techstream now and have a few containers of new AHC fluid that I need to flush once it stops raining long enough to crawl around on the driveway. So far I'm just cleaning up some minor issues. She'll need a timing belt service this spring, and I have a slight rear axle leak on the driver side.
But, now on to the main topic of the thread. This truck has the Nakamichi stereo, and I might be the only person on earth who actually likes the factory look/feel and sound. It "worked" but had two annoying issues. The first of which which was the left channel would cut in and out, but would come back if you quickly adjusted the volume. That I knew from my vintage stereo work was a classic symptom of a dirty volume potentiometer.
The other issue was I was somehow the only person with one of these that had a working CD changer. But, beginning around track 5 or 6 of each CD played, it would start skipping. So, out it came and on the bench.
The first interesting thing is the volume an function knobs are part of the logic board on the faceplate, not attached to the main body of the unit itself. Gently work the plastic clips off all the way around and the faceplate with knobs will separate from the main unit.
Remove the screws securing the two smaller boards along both edges, as well as the CD loading slot and you will then have access to the knob side.
The potentiometers looked like sealed units, not the 1960s open type I'm used to, no place to spray contact cleaner in. But, I thought I might be able to drip some in through the shaft opening. I use DeOxit D5, and applied it to the shaft and let it work its way inside. I then put the knob back on and worked it back and forth through its full range of movement 100 times.
Next I continued to break the unit down to get access to the CD changer. My aim here was to clean the laser with isopropyl alcohol, and attempt to clean/regrease the transport sled the laser runs on.
Top cover off, it looks like the case is used as a heat sink for some transistors, careful to keep the thermal paste in place, or be prepared to apply more during reassembly.
You can now see the CD changer works. This thing is fiendishly complex, and I started to realize there was no way I could easily access the laser transport mechanism. It was here that I made my big mistake. I spun the changer mechanism to separate the trays hoping it would give me better access. It didn't, I was able to get a cotton swab with isopropyl alcohol on the laser, which you can just barely peeking out to the left of the CD spindle.
I put it all back together, back in the truck, hopeful the cleaning had at least helped. And.....I've now joined the ranks of ERROR 3 Nakamichi owners. I pulled it back out, and back apart thinking it didn't like the fact that when I reset the mechanism I had it bottomed out. So, I reset the trays to the mid-point of their travel hoping it would cause the unit to reset, but no luck. It didn't even sound like it tried, so I'm thinking once ERROR 3 is set, it needs to be cleared before the unit will allow the mechanism to move again.
If I could get my hands on a service manual, I'm sure I could get it to work again, as I know there is no physical damage. I tried several combinations of button press/hold hoping I'd stumble on something, but no luck.
So, there you have it, I was 50% successful as the left channel/volume control issues are now fixed. Hopefully at least having some more info/pics of the inside of this unit on the board is helpful.
