My CD changer skipping along

[Joe Dirt]

Well, my 1995 CD-6 has been acting annoying lately, skipping and actually cutting out when I would turn left or right, and skip once in a while over bumps. I was near to changing the whole system to the plug and play 1998 Ranger single CD, when I got a bug up by tail to try and clean the changer out of the car and see if it helps, I'd rather have the CD-6.

So I remember reading in a skipping thread about the orientation button on the CD changer being incorrectly set, and changing it corrected someone's problem. Lo and behold, I pull the changer out, and find this:

Orientation set to horizontal, while mounted vertically...

I'm still cleaning up the changer, but hopefully this remedies my problem, and in the process help someone else out with a searchable thread. If it works, I'll post a step by step how-to...

Fingers crossed...

 

[Joe Dirt]

Well, as an update, my changer now works flawlessly- the orientation setting fixed it. It was a relatively simple fix, nothing more than this: (on my '95)

1. Pull your negative battery cable (if you wish, I didn't since the changer isn't powered unless the radio is on)
2. CAREFULLY pull out the forward console cubby with the 2 felted compartments (held by metal spring clips)
3. CAREFULLY pop out the cupholder half of the console (held by metal spring clips, the cupholder section clips to the cubby section, so pull them out in this order...
4. Unscrew the armrest pad for room (3 screws)
5. Remove the 4 bolts (2 in front of the changer insige the console, 2 in the rear under the armrest pad) holding the cd changer mount to the armrest console
6. Pull the changer assembly up, and tilt the back forward to gain some clearance to unhook the wire connector from the changer, you can reach it throught the front of the console, just a springy push-down-while-pulling type clip, not the knuckle busting "screwdriver-needed-thanks-a-lot-Ford" clips
7. Pull the changer and the plastic CD changer mount out as one piece
8. Remove the three screws holding the CD changer to the plastic mount
9. Look for the silver orientation button (seen above) and make sure it is in the correct spot- "H" for horizontal thumbdwn and if needed, move to "V" for vertical thumbsup all you need to do it gently push it with a screwdriver and slide it over to "V"

I took this opportunity to take my console pieces, and the changer mount into the house and scrub them good- since they were out of the car. A little Dawn dishwashing detergent and a nice brush and not only is all of the goop gone from the CD holder slots in the changer mount, but my felted cubbies are nice and fuzzy again!

10. Reattach the CD changer to the CD changer mount with the 6 screws (I re-loctited mine since it looked like they were loctited for vibration issues)
put the front of the changer mount in the console, tilted forward, and move it in and back into place
11. Reattach your wiring
12. Check your CD changer for operation quickly before reattaching everything
12. If ok, bolt the CD changer mount back into the console with the 4 bolts
13. Reattach your armrest pad
14. Rock your favorite CD in skipless bliss...

Like I said- my changer would skip a lot, and totally cut off when I swerved/turned right or left. If your changer is doing similar things, this may be the fix... Good luck!