Stuck cassette in cassette player...

53ryder

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Was driving my '87 Fifth Avenue earlier tonight. Had radio on and then decided to play a cassette on the cassette player. Cassette went in and nothing happened. Hit 'eject' button numerous times but no ejection. No cassette playing and no radio either. Turned power on and off a number of times with no change. Electronic display shows a 'radio station channel' but no sound since the darned cassette player is jammed. Any thoughts? Should I check for a burned out fuse? Is there a trick for getting the cassette out without crunching it? Thoughts?

BTW this is factory AM/FM Radio and Cassette player, not an after-market one.


Glenn
 
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Justwondering

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Kinda depends on why its stuck.
If the player head is stuck, then you can try using a thin, small screwdriver and push it in (gently) under the cassette and kinda rock it on one side (up down) and then in the middle and then on the other side. If the player head is stuck, sometimes a little encouragement makes the head release.

After you try rocking it (or while you are doing it), you can use either a pair of long nose pliers or a straightened paper clip (bigger is better) with one end kinda in a hook shape. You are trying to grab the cassette case and worry it forward toward the opening.

You may have a tangled tape and it will string out (remaining stuck in the player) OR the tape may pull a little but then release. If the tape breaks, you can use repair tape and fix the break. Most of the tape will remain usable but you'll have a small bit that is static or quiet while it trys to play the tape fix.

Very worst case, you'll need to remove the front plate and get to the guts to pull it out. That would mean you'd need to remove the radio/cassette player from the dash.

I've been lucky enough to get a stuck cd out of the cd player in my dad's truck. It was stuck in there for 5 years cause he was angry at the cd player and refused to let anyone fix it. Once I inherited the truck after his death, my very first thing was to use a screwdriver and gently lever it up to get it out.

The only cassette I got stuck in a player was mangled beyond belief when I finally got it out. Eventually, after playing it about 20 times, it mostly played properly again. And fortunately, the members of Earth, Wind, & Fire never found out how wonky they sounded in my car.

JW
 

Justwondering

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And after you get the stuck tape out, be sure to clean the heads so maybe it won't happen on another tape.

JW
 

Justwondering

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I should also add, I had pretty good luck using a metal fingernail file as well on those stuck cassettes/cd players.

JW
 

Aspen500

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In most cases I've run into at work, we ended up taking the radio out and disassembling it partially to manually get the cassette (or later, CD) out. On anything built in the past 20 years (or with a multi-disc changer) we send them in to a radio repair service because of the way they're made now. Not field serviceable.

There's a number of things that can cause it to get stuck or not play. Damaged cassette is one. The mechanism in the radio could also be failed, broken internal electrical connection, etc.....
 

Mikes5thAve

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On factory cd players I've been told when cd's do that it's because there's a micriswitch not working right so it doesn't know the cd is on all the way. That's probably the same thing with cassettes. All you can do is play around with it for a bit to try to get it out. There's no fuse. If the radio has never been out before it might also have the stupid security screws still.
 

XfbodyX

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Has everyone forgotten the old weekly process from back in the day?

Two tiny flat screwdrivers. One to hold the cassette player door open, the other to flick the tape up and down a bit until the unit wants to give up and spit it out. I dont mean crow bar arm type, just flick the end of the tape up and down a lil bit.

Never had a unit not give the tape back but just want to keep some of the tape itself but here again we all know how we used to twist the tape back in and play that puppy again.
 

Aspen500

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Has everyone forgotten the old weekly process from back in the day?

Two tiny flat screwdrivers. One to hold the cassette player door open, the other to flick the tape up and down a bit until the unit wants to give up and spit it out. I dont mean crow bar arm type, just flick the end of the tape up and down a lil bit.

Never had a unit not give the tape back but just want to keep some of the tape itself but here again we all know how we used to twist the tape back in and play that puppy a
Oh yeah,,,,,,,,,, actually I did forget that method.
 

Justwondering

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53ryder --
Either 1) you are not holding your mouth right
or
2) As Aspen500 says -- remove it from the dash and take the top plate off to have access to pull the cassette out.

Though personally, i think xfbodyx and his two tiny screwdrivers - flick it, flick it good - method would be fun to watch.

cassettetape.gif

JW
 

Mr C

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Tried the 'fiddle' idea. No luck so far.
With a casette in, the flap should be kinda open...anyway...hold it open so you can see inside.

On the passenger side top corner of the cassette hole, you should see a metal tang inside...with like a 90 degree bend . Use a small scewdriver and push the tang forward...the cassette will pop up.
 

Aspen500

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Any luck yet, getting the cassette to eject? Guess it could be worse. Could be an 8-track with 10 feet of tape tangled and wadded up in the player, not that I ever had that happen.

JW, the trick to flick it, flick it good, is to do it before the cream sets out too long. ;)
 
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