I have a Sundance that is less than two years old. This summer the CD/DVD player has been progressively getting worse at pulling in and ejecting the disc until on our last trip the disc would not eject at all with repeated attempts.
I searched this forum and the Internet for ideas, tips, hints, etc., but to no avail. I e-mailed Jensen service but with not response for over two weeks. I called Jensen service and explained the situation. There was little help offered short of buying a new unit. I asked for any drawings, instructions, diagrams, etc., so I could disassemble the unit myself to try and fix it. I had nothing to loose since a new unit was needed, in their opinion.
Today I removed and disassembled the unit. Here is what I found.
1. There are a lot of screws used in the assembly of the unit. An exploded diagram would have been extremely helpful. I final got it apart and removed the CD player assembly for further inspection.
2. I immediate noticed a small rubber belt on the CD player that had may cracks in it and was not transferring on any torque because of that. I surmised that this was the root problem for not ejecting the CD. My guess is it has cracks due to ambient heat. (I live in Arizona).
3. I found an o-ring about the same size and replaced the small rubber belt. It works great now! That indeed was the problem. I reassembled the unit and re-installed it in the 5th wheel wall. All appears to be working well.
I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering with many years of experience. May I offer my opinion on the design of the unit. Per the forums and Internet sites on this Jensen model, the CD/DVD player assembly has a high reported incident rate of not being able to eject the CD, and more than likely for the same reason I found - a cracked and deteriorated rubber belt. This part probably costs the manufacturer about $0.001 (less than a penny). Yet is makes a $400 (retail) unit worthless when it fails. In my opinion, this is a poor design when the least expensive part can render the much more expensive assembly unusable. A more robust CD player design should have been chosen that could easily stand up the large swings in temperature that an RV or travel trailer experiences in it's life time.
So bottom line, if you have such a unit and the discs seem to be difficult to feed or eject, more than likely the small rubber belt needs to be replaced. The process to remove and disassemble the unit is not difficult. However, there are many, many screws of all types. I guess I had close to 50 screws removed at one time. Now that I know how the unit is assembled, you can probably get by with removing 20 or 25 screws. It would be best to take some pictures throughout the process to ensure you get them all replaced properly. Once the CD/DVD player is removed, the rubber belt is easy to find and replace. That is the easy part. Getting the AWM970 apart and back together takes much more work. The o-ring I used has an OD of 3/4 in. and ID of 5/8 in. and works very well.
I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to help - forgot the camera this trip... If any one has specific questions or is attempting to do this, I would be glad to help them.
I searched this forum and the Internet for ideas, tips, hints, etc., but to no avail. I e-mailed Jensen service but with not response for over two weeks. I called Jensen service and explained the situation. There was little help offered short of buying a new unit. I asked for any drawings, instructions, diagrams, etc., so I could disassemble the unit myself to try and fix it. I had nothing to loose since a new unit was needed, in their opinion.
Today I removed and disassembled the unit. Here is what I found.
1. There are a lot of screws used in the assembly of the unit. An exploded diagram would have been extremely helpful. I final got it apart and removed the CD player assembly for further inspection.
2. I immediate noticed a small rubber belt on the CD player that had may cracks in it and was not transferring on any torque because of that. I surmised that this was the root problem for not ejecting the CD. My guess is it has cracks due to ambient heat. (I live in Arizona).
3. I found an o-ring about the same size and replaced the small rubber belt. It works great now! That indeed was the problem. I reassembled the unit and re-installed it in the 5th wheel wall. All appears to be working well.
I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering with many years of experience. May I offer my opinion on the design of the unit. Per the forums and Internet sites on this Jensen model, the CD/DVD player assembly has a high reported incident rate of not being able to eject the CD, and more than likely for the same reason I found - a cracked and deteriorated rubber belt. This part probably costs the manufacturer about $0.001 (less than a penny). Yet is makes a $400 (retail) unit worthless when it fails. In my opinion, this is a poor design when the least expensive part can render the much more expensive assembly unusable. A more robust CD player design should have been chosen that could easily stand up the large swings in temperature that an RV or travel trailer experiences in it's life time.
So bottom line, if you have such a unit and the discs seem to be difficult to feed or eject, more than likely the small rubber belt needs to be replaced. The process to remove and disassemble the unit is not difficult. However, there are many, many screws of all types. I guess I had close to 50 screws removed at one time. Now that I know how the unit is assembled, you can probably get by with removing 20 or 25 screws. It would be best to take some pictures throughout the process to ensure you get them all replaced properly. Once the CD/DVD player is removed, the rubber belt is easy to find and replace. That is the easy part. Getting the AWM970 apart and back together takes much more work. The o-ring I used has an OD of 3/4 in. and ID of 5/8 in. and works very well.
I'm sorry I don't have any pictures to help - forgot the camera this trip... If any one has specific questions or is attempting to do this, I would be glad to help them.
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