AU Head unit removal tools!

[private9]

Hi All,

Just came across these on ebay, and thought they may be of interest.

Yes, you can bend them up yourself with coathanger wire apparently, but for gumps like me, this is the easy way out.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/CAR-STEREO-re...QQcmdZViewItem

Justin.

[ayeyew]

Yeah, having got my headunit out a couple months back, all i used was the ends of a coat hanger. Took a minute or two, but all was well in the end

[ohzone]

The Coat hangers are sooo easy it's not worth buying the tools.
Bend them into a U shape,
then using pliers put a couple of bites around each end about 2mm in, to make a "saw tooth" pattern to help when the H/U is pulled out,
insert the ends into the H/U till you just feel each "saw tooth" engage with the clips,
then gently lever the right hand tool towards the right door and left hand tool towards the left door so that the internal clips release from the "Din" chassis then pull the H/U carefully out.
easy!

[FTe_XR8]

i brought a set of these just last week, perfect! they look really easy to make but i couldnt be bothered and i had some time to kill before i get the new factory h/u so i thought y not for 15 bucks, and im glad i did cos there so easy to use. oh yeh they also come with a quick reference as to wat all the wires are.

[sly]

I had a go with the coathanger pieces once... stuffed the clips & had to get the H/U out with a jemmy bar, cost me $44 for a replacement H/U from the wreckers.

My Ford dealer doesn't have a part no for a H/U removal tool (although the manual says there is a Ford "special tool" for the job). Found out later the pro's use a pair of 3mm or 1/8" drill bits to release the clips FWIW.

[private9]

Originally Posted by sly

I had a go with the coathanger pieces once... stuffed the clips & had to get the H/U out with a jemmy bar, cost me $44 for a replacement H/U from the wreckers.

And that's exactly what I'd do! Hence me being happy to spend $15-$20 on tools that'll work.

[ohzone]

Better operate the Tools correctly as they have the same potential to break clips as what coathanger wire does
I was at a Holden Dealership today and asked the Head Mechanic what he uses on the VT COM (same setup as the AU)
He pulled the Coathanger wire out of his tool box :togo:

[SSVPom]

Well, made the coat hanger tools as per Superoos post (diagram from the Gregories manual) and basically managed to get the head unit out in the end, but.... here's this afternoon's experiences with my AU2 Premium Sound 6 stacker unit which has swallowed 6 CDs and only works on radio :

- It took and hour of fighting of course trying not to damage the trim and unit itself

- I reckon coat hanger wire is too thin, 2.5mm versus the 3mm ideal

- I ended up pulling the face off the unit, which was easy to do but it snaps two plastic 'eyelets' off the side. The face is meant to come off, but only once the unit is out of the dash. The face reattaches easily enough, but will need some double sided foam tape to fully secure it I reckon

- Taking the face off made positioning the tools easier, but still took a lot of man handling to get the thing out. I thought the unit fitted into a cage like other do, but no, it just clips behind the plastic dash structure. I concentrated my efforts incorrectly trying to 'prise' the unit from what I though was it's cage...

- I knocked a small part of the 'motherboard' off the CD mechanisms workings, so even though the radio still works (I plugged it back in to check!) the CD drive is now totally kaput. Which it was in the first place, so never mind.

- Managed to lever out 2 CDs from the mechanism whilst I was faffing around trying to get the unit out of the dash.

- The current unit in my dash is the car's second, so I reckon it was jammed in too tightly making the removal process all that much more difficult.

Anyway, the plan is to strip the unit down and rescue my CDs, maybe try to get it fixed then, or source a 2nd hand changeover unit.

The car getting sold in the next month or so after we've fitted new tyres and tidied it up, so I don't want to spend too much money on it !

Has anyone got a working Premium Sound AU2 / 3 head unit they are wishing to sell ?

[ohzone]

Here are some pics to see how the tools operate (that is the Key to removing the H/U safely)





Thanks to scrivens for the Pix

And here is the previous Thread discussing the subject

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthr...d+unit+removal