cassette tape won't eject, 98 taurus radio

[TaurusKing]

anyone have any ideas how to get cassette tape out of radio??? I've tried a few things, none work. Even removed the radio unit, no access from anywhere short of completely taking unit apart.. as a side issue, apparently the stuck tape may be causing the radio to draw parasite power from the battery when all is off. Had dead battery a couple of times, car is driven every 3 or 4 days. Checked amp draw, fluctuated between .34-.80, pulled fuses 1 at a time, 5 amp radio fuse pulled, amp draw down to less then .10. anyone have a wiring diagram showing power supply to radio from the back??? Pulling fuse means no radio illumination, clock. hvac still works. Thanks for ideas, TK

[shorod]

Can you tell if the tape won't eject because the tape is wound around the rollers inside or if it is a different mechanical issue? Is the tape partially ejected or completely stuck in the player like it didn't even try to eject? If stuck in the player does it still play?

I'll assume it's partially ejected. It's been a long time since I've had a Ford tape deck apart and I don't remember if the eject mechanism is belt driven or gear driven. If belt driven it's certainly possible the belt has degraded (stretched or glazed) and is no longer able to complete the eject operation. In this type of situation you may be able to use a small pick with a right angle on it to "help" the cassette eject. Also, have you tried pushing the cassette back in and trying to re-eject? Sometimes the cassette can get misaligned and hung up, but simply retrying the operation will work.

If the tape material is wound around the rollers you could try cutting the tape (it's ruined anyway) pulling the cassette housing out far enough that you can use picks or screwdrivers to slide the wrapped tape off the rollers. Be careful not to use anything with a magnetized tip so you don't magnetize the head.

I don't remember much difficulty in opening up Ford OEM head units, and often the gears and pulleys are pretty easily accessible. But to figure out what's needs to spin and which levers need to move to allow a manual eject operation can require some mechanical thinking.

I have wiring diagrams for the '98. If you send me a Private Message with the specific request and an e-mail address, I'll send you the PDF.

-Rod

[FimaF]

Originally Posted by TaurusKing

anyone have any ideas how to get cassette tape out of radio??? I've tried a few things, none work. Even removed the radio unit, no access from anywhere short of completely taking unit apart.. as a side issue, apparently the stuck tape may be causing the radio to draw parasite power from the battery when all is off. Had dead battery a couple of times, car is driven every 3 or 4 days. Checked amp draw, fluctuated between .34-.80, pulled fuses 1 at a time, 5 amp radio fuse pulled, amp draw down to less then .10. anyone have a wiring diagram showing power supply to radio from the back??? Pulling fuse means no radio illumination, clock. hvac still works. Thanks for ideas, TK

Hi, I have the same problem. The tape is stuck (Ford Taurus 98) and it seems it draws some power from the battery, even when the radio is off and the key is out. Did you solve your problem ? Thanks.

[TaurusKing]

Tape cassette is just stuck in there, no jammed tape.. it pulls between .34 and .80amps. will drain battery down in a matter of not many days.. I solved it by buying a used unit on ebay.. have not installed it yet , this weekend. Not sure if these radio codes I've seen mentioned are applicable to this unit I bought. If so the Ford dealer will help me out. Oh yeah if you pull the 5 amp radio fuse the speedo, fuel gauge, and alcohol sensor won't work either, at least on mine

[TaurusKing]

Put ebay radio in, perfect working order. If you want to take your radio apart, not too bad to do. Once I had the used unit in and working, gave it a go. Was initially concerned about screwing up the hvac portion of it, turned out to not be a problem.. About 10 screws or so in the back, small torx heads, knobs come off easily, make sure they're all in upright, basically off position,then they can be removed without breaking tabs. Can remove a couple of the switches from the back.. pull the unit apart, disconnect the flat wire cable. Now you can eject the tape from the carriage, just find the tabs to raise it up off of the drive wheels and pull it out.. put all back together.. I haven't tried mine to see if it's no longer drawing excess current. Have to wait for warmer weather. Oh yeah if you decide to buy a used unit, 96-97, at least the manual hvac, will not fit the 98-99 manual havac car. They all look the same from the front, extra plug, in the back, on the 96-97.

[shorod]

Good information, thank you for the follow-up post!

-Rod

[TaurusKing]

Put the original bck in the car to test, it works fine. Even ejected a cassete tape I put in, don't know what happened the first time. No parasite amp draw either, don't get that, the jammed tape must have continuously drawn power because as far as I thought, leaving a tape in there wouldn't draw power even with key off. I had greased all the plugs and minitube connector with dielectric grease to make it easy to get on and off in the future. The minitube connector was especially hard to get off on the original, thought I might tear the tubes out, but all worked out.

[shorod]

Thanks for the update. Maybe the tape was stuck between limit switches so the mechanism was continuously trying to eject or insert the cassette. I'm not sure if you can eject a tape with the key removed. If so, I could see how having a stuck tape could create a draw on the battery even with the key removed. My recall is the mechanism for inserting and removing a cassette is electronic rather than purely mechanical.

-Rod

[TaurusKing]

Funny thing 100% silent, never knew it was the issue until I started pulling fuses to find the source.. figured the tape was just stuck until I found a way to remove it, little did I know...