firebird274
09-19-2012, 08:56 AM
If you have shipped your radio and its been bummed and banged along the way, chances are you will now have a "Mechanism Failure" error message when you get it back. Now I'm not saying this is the fix for all "Mechanism Failure" error messages, but I think that I found a point a failure that should cure the problem. My radio was starting to have problems with the CD before I sent it out, so that's why I think it might be the problem for most of the "Mechanism Failure" error messages.
1. Remove radio face place, disconnect the antenna on the left, and disconnect the connecter on the right. Then remove the 4 black screws holding the radio in place and pull the radio out so you can bring it to your work bench.
2. Once it is on your work bench, remove the metal face plate by removing these 6 screws
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070979_zpsfadceb60.jpg
3. The next step is to remove to top cover. On the top part you will see the word "open" stamped near the back with a hole next to it. Put a small screw driver in there and pry up. There are no screws holding on the top piece so don't worry, just pry up and it will pop off.
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070977_zps5c3a91f7.jpg
4. Now if you look at the picture below, my screw driver is pointing to a rivet that has a gear beneath it. This rivet has a washer on it which is very flimsy. The washer on mine was bent(probably from when it was dropped during shipping), which allowed the gear beneath it to wobble, which caused it to not make contact with the big arc gear you see in the picture. Now all I did was push that gear back down, then very carefully used two flat head screw drivers to press on the washer to make it as flat as possible.
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070974_zpscad82c19.jpg
5. Now for the final step, this kinda scared me at first because I thought the CD changer was going to eat my finger. You are going to have to plug in your radio without installing it, so don't put anything back together just yet. Go back out to your car and sit in the passenger seat. Now take the big black radio connecter and pull it towards you so you can plug it into your radio. As soon as you plug it in the radio should start going through a processes of cycling the CD changer. You will notice that same gear that you pushed down on will start to spin and move a lot of different things inside the changer. You are gonna want to hold that gear down while it finishes its cycle, trust me your finger will not get hit even though it looks like it is going to. Once it finishes you can remove your finger. If the gear is still slipping after that just try your best to get that washer as flat as possible. Once your satisfied it is flat enough, put it all back together very carefully. Hope this write up helps other people with the "Mechanism Failure" error message and good luck.
1. Remove radio face place, disconnect the antenna on the left, and disconnect the connecter on the right. Then remove the 4 black screws holding the radio in place and pull the radio out so you can bring it to your work bench.
2. Once it is on your work bench, remove the metal face plate by removing these 6 screws
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070979_zpsfadceb60.jpg
3. The next step is to remove to top cover. On the top part you will see the word "open" stamped near the back with a hole next to it. Put a small screw driver in there and pry up. There are no screws holding on the top piece so don't worry, just pry up and it will pop off.
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070977_zps5c3a91f7.jpg
4. Now if you look at the picture below, my screw driver is pointing to a rivet that has a gear beneath it. This rivet has a washer on it which is very flimsy. The washer on mine was bent(probably from when it was dropped during shipping), which allowed the gear beneath it to wobble, which caused it to not make contact with the big arc gear you see in the picture. Now all I did was push that gear back down, then very carefully used two flat head screw drivers to press on the washer to make it as flat as possible.
http://i962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/firebird01_bucket/P1070974_zpscad82c19.jpg
5. Now for the final step, this kinda scared me at first because I thought the CD changer was going to eat my finger. You are going to have to plug in your radio without installing it, so don't put anything back together just yet. Go back out to your car and sit in the passenger seat. Now take the big black radio connecter and pull it towards you so you can plug it into your radio. As soon as you plug it in the radio should start going through a processes of cycling the CD changer. You will notice that same gear that you pushed down on will start to spin and move a lot of different things inside the changer. You are gonna want to hold that gear down while it finishes its cycle, trust me your finger will not get hit even though it looks like it is going to. Once it finishes you can remove your finger. If the gear is still slipping after that just try your best to get that washer as flat as possible. Once your satisfied it is flat enough, put it all back together very carefully. Hope this write up helps other people with the "Mechanism Failure" error message and good luck.