# anyone here taken apart a Kenwood Excelon head unit?



## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

Mainly the cd portion on a x891. I sold this deck and it worked fine but I left a cd in it and it and forgot. 

buyer sent it back to me and I have taken the top cover off and inserted a cd and it acts like its reading but I notice the cd doesnt spin.

after few secs it gives me a TOC error ( table of contents)

its worth fixing as its mint perfect but I am not sure how far I want to disect it. there is obviously something else holding down the cd assembly in the front of the deck.


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

nobody?


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

stupid question... did you try resetting it?


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## goodstuff (Jan 9, 2008)

Shipping with a CD in is always a death sentence for Clarions, not sure about Kenwood.


http://www.pacparts.com/reference/880/KDCX891.pdf

http://www.pacparts.com/model.cfm?CFID=4903605&CFTOKEN=5050eb02f623c23f-0C7E8493-ED93-C55E-6492855302CE0F20&mfg=KENWOOD&model_id=KDCX891&row_start=1&src_model_id=x891&action=list_part


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

goodstuff said:


> Shipping with a CD in is always a death sentence for Clarions, not sure about Kenwood.
> 
> 
> http://www.pacparts.com/reference/880/KDCX891.pdf
> ...



I did reset it . no luck. I just got a cd7000 and it had a cd in it. worked fine. 

I have gotten several with cd's in it before no issue. 

thanks for the info.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

I'd say you are pretty much hosed.


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

chad said:


> I'd say you are pretty much hosed.


what I would like to know is what is wrong. how hard can it be to fix?

I got a tech that lives not far. I will call him. 

I just thought maybe one of you had taken apart a deck before.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

no spin AT ALL?


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

chad said:


> no spin AT ALL?



something does spin but looking at it from above with the top cover off you can see the cd doesnt actually move. you can hear something spinning until it times out and gives the error.

its like the mechanism that rotates the disk is not rotating. I am sure this is not a hard fix.

I am sure a tech will know. I will call him tomorrow. he lives like 20 minutes away. I can send it to him and have it back unless he tells me its simple.

or 

I can use it in the wifes car for radio and USB. she doesnt need cd player anyhow. the deck itself is mint. less than 2 months old.


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## chad (Jun 30, 2005)

it could be the laser servo moving the lens up and down or the laser assembly across the CD attempting to read the TOC. Lets hope it's a dislodged ribbon cable.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

This happened to me not too long ago (I did a rant about it because I thought the buyer was trying to pull a quick one on me). But I came to the conclusion that I was wrong (I forgot to eject the CD that I had when I was testing it and shipped it like that). It was an alpine 7949, buyer was pissed but I shipped him another alpine from that era and he manage to remove the whole cd mechanism and place it inside the 7949 and told me it worked better than the other 7949 he had.

You would need the service manual, those manuals tell you step by step how to take everything apart.

I have a service manual for a Pioneer I can send you but dont know if the cd mechanism is the same (their identical on most CD players but not exactly the same).


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

thanks.

I have taken apart laptops all the way down to the last screw and put them back together and they worked.

. I think I can do this as long as there is no soldering involved. lol.


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## TrickyRicky (Apr 5, 2009)

JAX said:


> thanks.
> 
> I have taken apart laptops all the way down to the last screw and put them back together and they worked.
> 
> . I think I can do this as long as there is no soldering involved. lol.


Am pretty sure there is a high percentage some type of soldering will be involved. Some head units had a part of the chassis solder on to the board or sometimes the ribbon cable is solder on instead of clipped on. 

Goodluck, if there is soldering involved, let your tech-repair guy do it. Most parts on head units are SMD (no not that a-hole steve meade) lol. They are 10x harder to solder if you've only solder through hole.


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Didn't see this 'til now.

This happens a lot. The mechanism gets out of timing from the flopping around in shipping. Power the deck down, remove the mechanism (if you can access the screws) and try to push the disc out through the openings in the frame. Don't try to save the disc as you'll likely scratch the ish out of it in the process. Back the disc past the lock-out levers (posts that pop up to prevent additional disc insertions). You might have to manually turn the gearing that drives the guide rollers which sandwich the disc.

Once you have the disc out, power the deck up and hit eject. If all goes well, the mechanism will reset and allow you to put a disc in. Put the disc in then immediately eject it. Watch the mech to see that everything is moving without binding. 

Good luck!


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## JAX (Jun 2, 2006)

The deck is in my car at the moment until tomorrow. 

Then I am putting a 991 in. Then I will try to fix this one. 


The cd is out. Came right out. Just when I insert disk now it doesn't read. 

I am going to get it right though cause its basically new and wife's crap Sony is worn out.


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