Copied from somewhere else a while ago, I do not know who the original author was. I have done it myself with these instructions:
1. Remove player from vehicle.
2. Remove faceplate.
3. Remove the black (blank) side of the D-Mask. It is made of black plastic, and attached to the metal with double-sided adhesive tape. I gently pried one edge apart (allowing time for the tape to pull off gently), then completed the removal by prying it off with a butter knife. This is the step that made me the most nervous (visions of snapping the plastic ran continously in my head). It was all fine since I went slowly and allowed the tape to peel apart on its own.
4. Unscrew the small screw holding the connector block to the D-Mask plate, to free up one end of the connector. If you look at the replacement parts, this is the end of the cable that needs the block soldered to it.
5. Solder the connector block onto the replacement cable. I actually think Kenwood ought to sell the cable with this already done, since the soldering was the step that had my anxiety almost as high as when I pried off the D-mask plastic. I used Radio Shack's low-temp solder weld (silver based paste-type solder) and a 15-W iron with a fine tip to solder each of the 15 wires of the block onto the corresponding exposed metal patches on the cable. I basically melted a tiny amount of solder (only enough to make about a 1-2mm half-drop at the end of the iron) onto the soldering tip, then quickly touched it to the wire on the connector as it rested over the metal patch I wanted it soldered to. There is only one way to orient the connector block so that each wire lies on top of a bare metal patch in the cable.
6. To free the other end of the cable, you need to take the top of the casing off the body of the cd player. It's held on by (I think) 3 screws.
7. DON'T TAKE THE CABLE OUT OF THE SPRING-LOADED BAR THAT RETRACTS IT WHEN THE FACEPLATE CLOSES. Leave it wound around the little plastic bar until later (it will make your life easier). Slide the flat end of the new cable through the same path the old one takes through the slots of the D-Mask assembly.
8. Take out another 2 screws somewhat deeper in the unit located towards the front of the player, in front of the CD turntable. This will free the CD turntable from the unit so you can lift it up to find the other end of the cable you are trying to replace. I left the CD turntable part plugged into the board below it, and just held it up while I worked beneath it.
9. The second end of the cable is secured by an extra loop of the cable that goes around behind the flat connector. This is sort of "C" shaped, with the end of the cable lying within the C. This step is hard to explain, but really easy to see if you are looking at the cable in the machine (hopefully someone will take some pictures...I was so bent on getting my player back that I didn't even think about documenting the repair). The end of the cable is plugged into a plastic socket. Lift the part of the cable that is outside the plastic to allow it to slip forward over the plastic (towards the front of the unit), and gently rock the flat cable side-to-side while pulling on it to get it out of the plastic socket.
9. Now that both ends of the old cable are free, you can easily see how the new cable will fit in. Again, don't pull the old cable out of the spring-loaded bar.
10. Hold both ends of the old cable and pull them in opposite directions, so that the tension on the cable causes the spring-loaded bar to unwind to the point where the old cable passes straight through the slot in the bar. If you now slide the new cable (flat end going into the unit) along the top of the old cable, then it will be wound around the bar the exact right number of times to maintain the same tension as the factory. The cable winds around that bar about 1.5 times, but I can't say exactly how many. When I did this step, it helped to put a piece of scotch tape over the little piece of double-stick tape still stuck to the old cable, and I just slid the end of the new cable along the top of the old one. Once the new cable was through the spring-loaded bar, I had someone else hold the ends of it while I slipped the old cable out, then I let the spring wind the new cable around the bar.
11. Plug the flat end of the cable into the plastic block inside the unit on the board underneath the CD turntable assembly, and put the "C" part of that end over the block to keep it securely plugged in. This step is the reverse of when you removed the internal end of the cable, and it requires very little force.
12. Slip the CD turntable assembly back into place and secure it with the screws removed earlier.
13. Put the cover back on the body of the unit and replace all screws removed in the disassembly of the device.
14. Screw the connector block onto the D-Mask assembly using the same screw and little black plastic block that held the original cable connector in place.
15. At this point, the cable should be replaced and follow the exact same path as the original. I took the unit out to the car and hooked it up to test it before I put the black plastic part of the D-Mask back on, since I didn't want to repeat step 3. Not having that black panel there made the whole faceplate a bit wobbly (not as much support behind the buttons when I tested it), but all the buttons worked again.
16. Peel the covering off the square of double-sided tape used to secure the cable to the D-Mask assembly and stick it down.
17. Put the black plastic part of the D-Mask back on. The the double-sided tape the factory used was still sticky enough, and my plastic piece is still stuck firmly in place despite the 95+ degree days we've had this summer.
Aircooled
September 2007
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